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Overview
How To...Identify Scholarly Information
In college classes, you may be required to use scholarly information. Sources of information can range from being not scholarly, to very scholarly, to somewhere in the middle. Each source will go somewhere on this Scale of Scholarliness:
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Least Scholarly Mid-level Most Scholarly
Ex.: children's books Ex.: magazine & newspaper articles Ex.: academic journal articles
Where on the Scale of Scholarliness does your source fall?
To make your determination, consider the six things listed below. Click on each box to learn more.
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Characteristics of Scholarly and Popular Sources
Scholarly Sources |
Popular Sources  |
| Author: Experts, researchers |
Author: Reporters, journalists, professionals, company employees, or anyone |
| Written for: Other experts and researchers |
Written for: Regular people |
| Publisher: University, academic press, sometimes government |
Publisher: Newspaper, magazine,non-academic publisher or website |
| Vocabulary: Advanced, technical, scholarly |
Vocabulary: General language |
| Purpose: To report research findings, build on the academic literature |
Purpose: To inform, entertain, convince, market, or sell |
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Editing:
Reviewed by other experts (peer review) |
Editing: Basic editing |
| References: Yes; look for footnotes or a list of sources at the end of the article. |
References: Not usually, though studies or other sources may be mentioned |
Video: Evaluating Sources for Credibility
This video, from North Carolina State University, discusses using some of the ideas on this page to evaluate the credibility of a source.