LibAnswers

Our English 102 course guide explains the difference between popular and scholarly articles. Basically, popular articles are shorter, written by staff writers, don't include citations/sources, and include pictures--think of articles in magazines and newspapers like National Geographic, The Washington Post, or Time. Scholarly articles are longer, written by researchers or professors, include a lengthy bibliography with sources and citations, and look pretty boring with no imagery--think of articles in journals like Nature or The Hawaiian Journal of History..

Both popular and scholarly sources are relevant depending on your information need but your professor may require you to use a certain number of each, or only scholarly sources, in an assignment. If you need further help finding articles or with research in general, you can contact a reference librarian Here.  Or you can get in touch with the library liaison for your college, who can give you in-depth research assistance: https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/about/liaisons.html