History: Popular vs. Scholarly

Magazines are considered popular sources.  They usually have the following characteristics:

•  Written for a general audience

•  Articles are short and entertaining

•  Lots of illustrations, usually in color

•  Contain advertisements

•  Written by a staff of writers

•  Written at about a 9th grade reading level

Journals are considered scholarly sources.  Other terms used to describe journals are academic, peer-reviewed, or

refereed.  Journals share the following characteristics:

•  Written for a highly educated audience

•  Articles are written by subject matter experts and may be peer-reviewed *

•  Illustrations tend to be graphical - charts, tables, graphs

•  Articles have works cited pages

•  Contain few or no advertisements

* Article manuscripts are read and reviewed by members of an editorial board who determine whether or not the article is suitable for publication. 

This video explains the peer review process in easy-to-understand terms.

Created by North Carolina State University Libraries.