Scholarly sources contain articles that are written by experts in a certain field, often to report research findings. They are written for a specialized audience, so they often use technical terminology. Many, but not all, are peer-reviewed. Lancet Public Health is an example of a scholarly journal. Note that not all articles in a scholarly journal are necessarily scholarly; they may be letters to the editor, opinion pieces, etc.

To learn how to identify a scholarly journal article, read our FAQ answer What are scholarly or peer-reviewed articles?

Popular magazines are non-scholarly sources. This mean that they are not peer-reviewed and are generally written for a broad audience. If you’re looking at the print version, it usually contains ads and glossy photos.

To learn more about the different types of sources, visit the Research hub in The Learning Portal.