BIOL 1501 Principles of Biology 1 (Carlson)

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Within the broad discourse of a field, there are many different kinds of sources. In academic writing, we usually divide sources into academic or scholarly sources, and popular sources. One central difference is that academic and scholarly sources go through a process called peer review, while popular sources do not.

What is the difference between scholarly sources and popular sources? The Georgetown University Library has a good comparison between the two here.

Popular Sources

• Written by non-experts for a general audience, oftentimes journalists or popular writers
• If an article, published in popular magazines or newspapers (Time, Popular Mechanics, The New York Times) or, if a book, by popular publishing houses (Penguin, Random House)
• Not edited or reviewed by experts before publication
• Often contain no references
• Often have advertising or look flashy and eye-catching

Scholarly Sources

• Written by experts (usually professors) for an academic audience
• If an article, published in an academic journal (The Journal of Academic Emergency Medicine, PMLA, The New England Journal of Medicine) or, if a book, by an academic or university press (Routledge, Oxford University Press)
• If an article, will undergo peer review (see below)
• Edited and reviewed by other experts before publication
• Contain references
• Have minimal or no advertising; look very plain.

What is peer review? The publisher Elsevier has a good overview here. Peer review a process where an academic article is reviewed and edited before it is published in an academic journal. This is a unique process that isn't done by any other type of publication. The article is reviewed by other experts in the field, usually other professors or working professionals. If it doesn't meet high academic standards or contains bad information, it is sent back to the author for revision, or outright rejected. This process ensures that only the best articles are published by academic journals.

Within scholarly sources, there is also the distinction between primary sources and secondary sources. Within the sciences, this is offen the difference between original research and reviews. The BMCC library has a good overview of the difference between primary and secondary sources here. 

Primary Research/Original Research

• Experiments, clinical trials, original research conducted by the authors.
• Contains sections about methodology, materials, results, and discussion.

Secondary Sources/Reviews

• Reviews and interprets someone else's original research.
• Summarizes multiple different studies.
• Does not contain methodology, results, or discussion sections.