Why Identify Publication Type?
It is important to be aware of the different types of publication sources so that when you are conducting research you know what publication source will meet your information need. Also, in order to properly cite a source, you need to identify it’s publication type to determine the correct formatting. Determing publication type can be more challenging when viewing an article in electronic format since there is often less context
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Scholarly vs. Popular Sources
Academic Journals are considered scholarly sources because they are created to further knowledge in academic fields and educate, while newspapers and magazines are considered popular sources because they are created to entertain.
Scholarly articles are written by experts in the field and, additionally, peer reviewed by a panel experts in the field. They tend to include a lot of research and data, and the information in the article is backed up by a list of references.
Example of a journal with scholarly articles
Popular articles are often written by journalists for a general audience and are not reviewed by experts in the field. Popular articles quote sources but rarely include references.
Example of a magazine with popular articles
For more information on scholarly articles, see the tutorial Anatomy of a Scholarly Article.
When it comes to scholarly, scientific, or technical information, you might not have the background to be able to judge accuracy just by your own knowledge of the topic. That's where peer review becomes important.
Peer review is the practice of having a panel of experts, perhaps fellow researchers in the same field, evaluate articles before they are published. Authors often ask friends and colleagues to read over and comment informally as they write; but peer review is different. Peer review is done for the journal's editors, and reviewers are (ideally) not people who already know the author. The peer reviewers check whether any scientific experiments were conducted using proper scientific methods, whether any statistical analysis was accurate, and if conclusions are valid. Also ideally, reviews are objective and not based on personal opinion.
While it's possible to "game" the peer review system, in general if an article was peer reviewed, you can trust that it is accurate.
Be warned: not all academic or scholarly journals are peer reviewed. If it was, often the article will list "peer reviewed" on the first or last page.
Instructors asking you to use credible sources use Turnitin.com to evaluate your citations to see whether you use scholarly, academic or peer-reviewed sources or popular sources. See the box below to determine whether a source is "scholarly" or "popular."
The chief difference between peer-reviewed, academic and scholarly sources and popular sources is how long it takes to publish the information.
| POPULAR | SCHOLARLY | PROFESSIONAL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To inform and entertain the general reader | To communicate research and scholarly ideas | To apply information; to provide professional support |
| Audience | General public | Other scholars, students | Practitioners in the field, professionals |
| Coverage | Broad variety of public interest topics, cross disciplinary | Very narrow and specific subjects | Information relevant to field and members of a group |
| Publisher | Commercial | Professional associations; academic institutions; and many commercial publishers | Professional, occupational, or trade group |
| Writers | Employees of the publication, freelancers (including journalists and scholars) | Scholars, researchers, experts, usually listed with their institutional affiliation | Members of the profession, journalists, researchers, scholars |
| Characteristics |
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|
|
| Frequency | Frequent, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis | Less frequent, on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis | Frequent, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis |
| Examples | Time, US News and World Report, Modern Healthcare | Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome | Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal |
(Table from Rutgers University, Popular Literature vs. Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Literature: What's the Difference? . The rest of this webpage has very useful tips too.)
Newspapers share many of the characteristics as popular magazine articles, but they can focused on:
They're good resources for information on the people, events, and places that matter to a specific region. However, in locally-focused newspapers, coverage of national and international news often comes from a newswire (for example, AP/Associated Press), so you will find essentially the same story in more than one newspaper. Keep in mind that newspapers will reflect the biases of their communities, so if you are researching topics of international import, look for newspapers from other countries besides your own.
Government or Agency Reports focus on specific issues, and sometimes contain detailed research reports as well as information about policies and programs that aim to fix problems associated with the topic. Look for documents produced by agencies that have responsibility in this area (for example, U.S. Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency; United Nations Environment) or reports for advocacy organizations (for example, Union of Concerned Scientists). Keep in mind, though, that all of these groups have some kind of political agenda and bias; that's not a reason to reject their information, but it's wise to learn more about their advocacy or opinions so you can factor that information into your essay too.
What about Books? Not that we have anything against books, but often these contain more material than you would use for an essay, especially if your instructor has asked you to include multiple sources of information. (If you are further interested in the topic, definitely check out the books on Library shelves and read from our e-book collections!) There are two exceptions to this general rule, though; you may find useful material for your essays in: