Some resources are scholarly (or academic), while others are considered popular (or general interest). In most cases, your professors will require that you find scholarly resources.

How can you tell the difference?

	Scholarly resources	Popular resources
Authors	written or reviewed by experts in the discipline	written by the publication's staff writers
Audience	written for researchers or practitioners in a particular discipline	written for the general public or lay person
Publisher	professional society or organization or university	commercial publisher
Content	provide in-depth analysis of topic or report of original research	review an event or research project, highlighting key points
Language	uses technical language which may not be understood by the lay person	understandable by the lay person
Appearance	* illustrations include graphs and tables * articles are usually long	* often use slick paper and more color * many advertisements and graphics * articles are usually very short
References	almost always include a list of sources consulted	rarely include a list of sources consulted
Examples