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Boatwright Memorial Library

Evaluating Sources

Characteristics of Scholarly & Popular Articles:

Use the Determining the Source Type chart on the Evaluating Resources page for more characteristics and types of sources.

 

Popular Articles

Scholarly Articles

  • Are often written by journalists or professional writers for a general audience
  • Use language easily understood by general readers
  • Tend to be shorted in length
  • Rarely give full citations for sources - or may refer to sources within the article, but not provide a bibliography list at the end of the article
  • Often have glossy advertisements not related to the article content
  • Are written by and for faculty, researchers or scholars
  • Use scholarly or technical language
  • Tend to be longer articles about research or provide results of original research
  • Include full citations for sources in a bibliography, reference list or footnotes
  • Are often refereed or peer reviewed
  • Few if any advertisements - will be related to the content of the journal, such as new books or upcoming conferences

 

What is Peer-Review?

Subject Guide

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Kyle Jenkins
He/Him/His
Contact:
kyle.jenkins@richmond.edu

(804)-289-8262

Boatwright Library, Room #183

261 Richmond Way
Richmond, VA 23173