How to Find Articles: Scholarly vs. Popular Resources

• Scholarly sources are articles written by experts in a field for the purpose of sharing original research.
• Popular sources are primarily magazine and newspaper articles written with an informal tone and scope and intended for a general audience. 
• Peer Review is a publishing process in academic fields. Prior to publication in a scholarly journal, an article is reviewed by other researchers and professionals in the specific subject area. This process is called "peer review" because the author's peers (i.e. other scholars or professionals in the field) decide if the article should be published. Peer reviewed articles are the ultimate in scholarly information.

Peer reviewed articles are scholarly sources; but not every article you find in a scholarly journal will be peer reviewed!

Confusing, right?? But to explain, a scholarly journal will often contain other types of articles, like book reviews and editorials, which did not go through the peer review process before being added and published in the journal. This is why using databases is so important; most databases will have special search filters so that you can limit a search to not only peer reviewed articles, but also the type of article (review, journal article, editorial, etc.). You may even have to use some extra clues, too, to make a final decision:

• Are the authors scholars, perhaps indicated with a doctoral "Dr" or "PhD"?
• Is the language/writing of the article geared towards other scholars and academics?
• Is the article of notable length (at least several pages long)?
• Are there graphs, tables, notes, and/or a Bibliography or Works Cited included?

If you have most of these requirements are met, and you have remembered to narrow your search to just peer reviewed articles, you will likely have a peer reviewed academic journal article.