Skip to Main Content

Critical Evaluation of Resources: Scholarly vs. Popular Articles

Scholarly or Popular?

  • Scholarly articles are often the best sources for university-level research.
  • Scholarly articles (published in scholarly journals) are reviewed by experts before they are published.
  • Popular articles (published in newspapers, magazines, and other sources) are not reviewed by experts, but may be extensively researched and / or fact-checked, depending on the publication.

Ulrichs Global Serials Directory

Not sure if an article is scholarly or popular?  Ulrichs has detailed information on more than 300,000 publications.  Enter journal/magazine title in the search box and find your publication.  Then, look for Academic/Scholarly in the Content Type field.

What to Look for in a Scholarly Article

Peer Review in Five Minutes

From North Carolina State University Libraries