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Scholarly vs.
Popular Materials
The library provides access to all sorts of resources-books, journals, databases, and web resources. Not everything in the library (or on the Web) is purely academic, or scholarly, in nature. Materials that aren’t truly scholarly are called "popular." Popular publications are usually intended for a general audience, and the articles are written by journalists. Journalists are not "bad," but they typically do not specialize in particular subjects. "Popular" publications also very often need to market their information and sell it, so they may be likely to report on what is interesting to its readers (as well as people they wish to acquire as readers) rather than what is truly important. Professional and industry-specific publications are also not usually scholarly, but are more reliable than general news resources, especially if published by an organization of note in the field. Scholarly materials are usually meant for real research; the audience for scholarly materials is usually composed of college students, professors, and serious researchers. The articles in scholarly publications are usually written by professors, researchers, specialists, or experts. Peer-reviewed or refereed ones are evaluated before they ever go to print. Here are a few things to think about when evaluating publications.
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December 2007 Please report promptly any ridiculous errors on this page to: niemla@ulm.edu |
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