You've found some promising materials for your paper, now what? These tutorials will provide you with tips and examples on evaluating articles.
Source: Popular vs. Scholarly Sources, video tutorial, by Emily Bongiovanni and Brianna Buljung
Source: Popular vs. Scholarly Sources, LibWizard tutorial, by Brianna Buljung
The articles found in many scholarly journals go through a "peer-review" process. In other words, the articles are checked by academics and other experts. The information is therefore reliable. As well as containing scholarly information, journal articles can include reports and/or reviews of current research and topic-specific information.
Use scholarly journals when you need original research on a topic; articles and essays written by scholars or subject experts; factual documented information to reinforce a position; or references lists that point you to other relevant research. Scholarly journals take less time to publish than books, but the peer-review process can be lengthy.
Popular articles found in magazines are often written by journalist or professional writers for a general audience. They tend to be shorter than scholarly journal articles and rarely give full citations for sources. Popular articles from magazines are helpful if you want background on a topic that is new to you or very current information
Found an article, but you aren't sure if it's scholarly?
Compare it to the Anatomy of Scholarly article from NCSU Libraries
Typical qualities of a scholarly journal article include:
The Basics
An abstract or summary begins the article
It contains citations or a bibliography
You can see the author's affiliation and credentials
The journal title often contains words such as journal, review, transactions and is subject or topic specific
Also Consider
Its written to inform and contains specialized language
Its written for other scholars in the subject
Scholarly journals tend to have few, if any images, but often contain charts, graphs, or data tables.