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Sources are often categorized as "popular" or "scholarly" based on how they are produced and the intended readership. In your research you may use scholarly, popular, or both types of resources depending on the type of research that you are doing, your topic, and the requirements set by your professor.

Here are some of the characteristics that define these two types of sources:

Characteristics of Scholarly Sources

• Publications often focus on a specific discipline or sub-discipline.
• For books, publishers will often be scholarly such as a University Press.
• Authors are typically scholars and/or researchers.
• Works are written for faculty/researchers using technical terms and jargon.
• Articles tend to be longer and focus on a very specific aspect of a topic.
• Articles in journals can take several months or years to write, so they often do not cover very current topics.
• Cited sources will be listed either throughout the work and/or at the end in a bibliography.