Find Articles - SCI 133: Environmental Science - Ghaemghami - LibGuides at Roxbury Community College

Academic vs Popular Articles and Journals

Popular Literature vs. Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Literature: What's the Difference?

Purpose

Academic: To communicate research and scholarly ideas
Popular: To inform and entertain the general reader

Audience

Academic: Scholars and students
Popular: The general public

Scope

Academic: Very narrow and specific subjects
Popular: Broad variety of public interest topics, cross disciplinary

Authors

Academic: Scholars, researchers, experts, usually listed with their institutional affiliation
Popular: Employees of the publication, freelancers (including journalists and scholars)

Characteristics

Academic:

Little or no background information given
Technical language and discipline-specific jargon
Peer reviewed
Bibliography/References/Citations included
Procedures and materials often described in detail
Articles are longer, often over 5 pages

Popular:

Little technical language or jargon
Few or no cited references
No bibliography
General summaries of background information
Contain numerous advertisements
Articles are usually brief; between 1-7 pages

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SCI 133: Environmental Science - Ghaemghami

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Academic vs Popular Articles and Journals

Purpose

Audience

Scope

Authors

Characteristics

Recommended Databases