Peer-Reviewed (sometimes called refereed or scholarly) articles are written by experts and reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in order to ensure the article's quality. Theses articles are more likely to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.
| Library Databases |
Web Searching |
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Internet or web interfaces (NCLive or any other subscription database, etc) |
Internet or web interfaces (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc) |
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Selective Content, Overwhelmingly peer/scholar reviewed |
Non-selective content. Anyone, with any agenda can publish on the web. No vetting process |
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Includes citations, and usually an abstract, or may be citations only |
Usually only full text, does not always have citations, but may contain footnotes |
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Field Searching by Title, Author, Keyword, Date Published, etc. |
Selective engines allow field searching, but in general, simple search boxes are used. |
Scholarly versus Non-Scholarly Articles
| Scholarly | Non-Scholarly | |
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Purpose |
The sharing of research, experiments, studies in order to better the profession |
Entertaining, information in a broad sense |
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Intended Audience |
Researchers, Academic Students, Faculty Members, College Audiences |
General Public Audience |
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Publishing |
Professional associations, university publishing houses or a scholarly commercial publisher |
Commercial Publishing Companies |
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Standards |
Contents are selectively published, and information is reviewed by scholars and experts in the field |
May be factual, but not scholarly. Magazines often publish fluff/opinion pieces, which are not peer-reviewed |
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Language Use |
Specialized vocabulary, jargon of the field |
Non-technical, conversational |
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Article Length |
Most often lengthy, ranging from 10-40 pages |
Usually short, 1-8 pages |
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Appearance |
Black text, white paper |
Glossy paper, color photographs, colored, stylized text |