| Criteria | Scholarly/Academic | Popular | Trade / Professional |
|
Intended Audience |
Professionals, Academics, Faculty, or Students in a specific field | General Public | Professionals in a specific field |
| Written by | Researchers or experts in a field | Journalists or Freelance writers; sometimes reviewed by other experts | Experts in the field |
| Language | Technical language or jargon | Everyday language | Technical language or jargon |
| Bibliography/References | Will have a Bibliography or Reference List | May have few or no references | May have a brief reference list |
| Advertisement(s) | Limited or no advertisement(s) | Many | Some advertisement(s) usually related to trade |
| Information | Original research, methods, and theories | News, Opinion(s), Secondary reports of research | Industry trends or news, product information |
| Examples |
Journal of Advanced Nursing Cancer Nursing Journal of Nursing |
Time Health WebMD |
Daily Nurse RN Journal Skilled Nursing News |
To examine the structure of a scholarly article, you can see the Anatomy of a Scholarly Article. (Courtesy of North Carolina State University)
Peer Review: A process where an author submits an article to an academic journal for publication. The article is reviewed by other experts in the field for content, methodology, and accurate reporting of findings before publication.
Finding Peer Reviewed articles: Research-oriented databases are the best places to find these types of publications. You can also find these articles in scholarly journals. Check the journal website and look for “information for authors” or author guidelines. This sections often describe the peer review process of a given journal.
Consumer health information: Such information is found in popular resources, government agencies, and health organizations. While consumer health information can be reliable information, it is not scholarly literature. Articles written for consumers can contain references to or report on findings in scholarly literature. In these cases, it’s best to find the primary research article and read it for yourself.
Primary literature
Primary sources are the authentic publication of an expert's new evidence, conclusions and proposals (case reports, clinical trials, etc) and are usually published in a peer-reviewed journal. Preliminary reports, congress papers and preprints also constitute primary literature.
Secondary literature
Secondary sources are systematic review articles or meta-analyses where material derived from primary source literature are inferred and evaluated.
Tertiary literature
Tertiary literature consists of collections that compile information from primary or secondary literature (eg., reference books)
Source: Grewal A, Kataria H, Dhawan I. Literature search for research planning and identification of research problem. Indian J Anaesth. 2016;60(9):635-639. doi:10.4103/0019-5049.190618