What is the difference between an article from a popular magazine and one from a scholarly or peer reviewed journal?
Answer
Popular articles usually appear in magazines and are often intended for a general audience. They use language easily understood by readers, seldom give citations for sources or bibliographies, and are shorter than scholarly journal articles.
Scholarly articles are written by and for faculty, researchers or scholars and are often about original research. They use scholarly or technical language, include full citations for sources, and tend to be longer than popular articles. They are peer reviewed and approved by a group of people with recognized expertise in the field.
Please read the online handout Popular or Scholarly? and watch the tutorial Scholarly vs. Popular tutorial for more information.
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