QMP 100: Roadmap

A video overview of Scholarly vs. Popular Articles from Vanderbilt University. 

Popular Literature

Popular articles are written by journalists, who are employed by the publication for which they write. Journalists cover news, profiles of people, places, or events, and express political opinions. 

Examples of Popular Literature:

The New York Times

Newsweek

Time 

National Geographic

Psychology Today

Science News

Scholarly Literature

Scholarly literature is written by researchers who are experts in their fields. They submit articles to journal editors in their field of study, who decide whether or not to publish the articles. 

Some scholarly literature is held to an even higher standard. These are peer-reviewed articles, and they are reviewed by experts in the field, in addition to the editor of the journal, who suggest possible changes to the article before it can be published. 

Examples of Scholarly Literature:

Journal of American History

Psychological Review>

Nature

Annals of the National Academy of Science

Acta Archaeologia

James Joyce Quarterly

Journal of the American Musicological Society

Thanks to Rutgers University for some of the content of this box. See Popular Literature vs. Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Literature: What's the Difference? for more information.