Research Guides: HSCI 2010: Is this scholarly?

Scholarly or Popular?

It's important that you use credible scholarly articles in your research. A scholarly sources is one that is:

Written by experts
Published in a scholarly journal
Contains references
Has designated sections

If you aren't sure if your source is scholarly, ask a librarian. Susan's email is svandagr@uccs.edu. Be sure to include the title, author, and year of your article so Susan can look it up to discuss it with you.

Popular Sources

Source: Harper's Bazaar

Target Audience

General Public

Goals

Get attention
Say something interesting
Raise awareness
Be visually and verbally exciting

Features

Glossy, fun, exciting, or beautiful photos
Fun fonts and layouts
Easy to read and understand for anyone
Comes from a magazine or newspaper

Scholarly Sources

Source: Journal of Dermatological Treatment

Target Audience

Scholars (people doing research)
Other experts (health care professionals)

Goals

Convey results of study or research
Make clear what they found out
Make clear how they conducted their research
Make clear any limitations or issues with the research
Indicate what they think experts should do based on what they saw in their study

Features

Plain, unexciting formatting
Scientific graphs and tables
Pictures designed to emphasize results, not to be interesting or pretty
A named author, with their affiliation (where they work) listed somewhere in the article
References - this shows the author has done their research.
Clear sections (Intro, Methodology, Results, Conclusions) - these help experts find the information they're looking for quickly when they need to make a decision.
The name of the journal it is in (look at the top and bottom of the page) along with the volume/issue number.