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Earthquakes Research Guide Is the Source Scholarly or Popular? |
Popular Sources
Examples: Google, Wikipedia, National Enquirer, People. These are the easiest to find and many people use them, BUT is the information you find there reliable enough to use in your college research? Maybe and maybe not.
Popular Reliable Sources
Examples: Geotimes (web,library), National Geographic (web, library), Scientific American (web, library)
Characteristics of popular reliable sources:
- Glossy paper, advertisements, heavily illustrated, attractive appearance.
- Rarely contain citations or a bibliography.
- Articles written by hired reporters, edited by magazine editors, and published.
- Books can be popular reliable sources also. Author and Publisher are often used to determine a books reliability. A reliable book will tell you about the authors background.
- Some reliable popular publishers: HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin, Viking, Crown Publishers, Wiley.
Scholarly Sources
Examples: Earthquakes & Volcanoes, Earth & Planetary Science letters, Earth-science Reviews, Technophysics
Characteristics of scholarly sources:
- Articles report on original research or experimentation.
- Cite sources in footnotes or bibliography.
- Written by scholars in the field.
- Often undergo a "peer-reviewed" process -- reviewed by other scholars in the field before being published. Sometimes called "refereed journals".
- Books are often scholarly sources. Author and publisher are used to determine reliability. Look for citations a nd bibliography as well.
- Some scholarly book publishers: Princeton University Press, University of California Press, Columbia University Press, National Academies Press.