| Popular Sources | Scholarly Sources | |
| Author | Professional writers, journalists, or members of the general public. | Experts (scientists, professors, scholars) in a particular field. |
| Audience | General Public | Other experts in a particular field. |
| Language | Basic and clear - easily understood | Very technical and scholarly - not easily understood. |
| Purpose | Often published by for-profit companies for revenue and profit. | Published by non-profit or education organizations to communicate new ideas. |
| Characteristics | Tend to be short and on topics of general interest. | Tend to be longer and are on very specific topics. |
| Citations | Informal or no citations for sources. | Complete and formal citations for sources. |
| Review Process | Reviewed by an editor or self-published with no formal review process. | Often reviewed by a panel of scholars in the field being studied. (Peer-Reviewed) |
These are the Library Databases where you will likely find SCHOLARLY Sources, like Journals:
Before searching in these databases make sure you have created a research question and that you have broken it down into keywords.
These are the Library Databases where you will likely find POPULAR sources, like newspapers and magazines.
Sometimes other types of scholarly or authoritative content is needed to help defend your paper's thesis. statement
Try out these resources to find other types of content.
Use your keywords to search for physical books, DVDs, and magazines in the library. You can also search for ebooks using the library catalog, or you can search one of the following databases.
