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Non-Scholarly/Popular Source |
Academic/Scholarly Source |
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Author |
A journalist or feature writer; names are not always noted. |
A respected scholar or researcher in the field; an expert in the topic; names and affiliations are always noted. |
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Audience |
General public |
Scholars or researchers in the field or those interested in the topic at a research level; university students. |
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Purpose |
To entertain or inform in a broad, general sense. |
To share with other scholars the results of primary research & experiments. |
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Style |
Articles (usually brief) are written in simple language—no specialized knowledge is needed in order to read an article. Articles are glossy and attention-grabbing, using many adjectives, and generally contain (unrelated) photos and great quantities of advertisements. |
Language is formal, analytical, and academic; usually contains discipline-specific jargons. |
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Content |
Often presented in story format, with anecdotes from other people. Information often second or third-hand, and the originality of the source is often obscure. |
Articles (are supposed to) present original research studies. Formal presentation of scholarly work in a standard style; often an abstract at the beginning of the article. Articles may have section headings, such as literature review, methodology, results, discussion/further study. |
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References |
Very uncommon; text may contain vague referrals to "a study published at..." or "researchers found that..." with no other details about that information. |
Standard element; references are always cited and expected; can also be called "works cited," or "bibliographies;" text often contains footnotes. |
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Publisher |
A commercial publisher; self-published. |
A university press; a professional association or known (independent) scholarly publisher. |
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Review Process |
Articles are reviewed by the editorial staff, including copyediting, proofreading, etc. A fact-checking and verification by another expert are rarely available. |
Scholarly articles go through a peer review (referee) process where other scholars who are experts in the field evaluate the content of the article; copyediting and proofreading are provided after the editorial/peer-review process. |
NOTES:
— Writing both non-scholarly and scholarly pieces of writing requires a set of skills, knowledge and experience. However, a review process in academia (e.g., Duke University Press ➤ ➤ Current Authors - Review Process) makes a significant difference in the quality of the contents.
— Reports brought by correspondents or on-the-scene reporters are often valuable and bring different values and viewpoints to the information landscape.
Source: Adapted from the Valparaiso University Library