{"id":2201,"date":"2025-11-13T12:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/?p=2201"},"modified":"2025-11-12T17:48:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:48:00","slug":"what-is-peer-review-and-whats-the-difference-between-scholarly-and-popular-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/2025\/11\/13\/what-is-peer-review-and-whats-the-difference-between-scholarly-and-popular-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Peer Review &#8211; and What\u2019s the Difference Between Scholarly and Popular Sources?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you\u2019re doing research, it\u2019s important to know where your information comes from &#8211; and how much you can trust it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>What Is Peer Review?<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peer review is a quality check for academic work. Before a research article is published, it\u2019s sent to other experts in the same field (\u201cpeers\u201d) to evaluate the methods, accuracy, and importance of the study.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This process helps ensure the research is credible and high-quality &#8211; though it\u2019s not perfect! You can find more information in our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.consortiumlibrary.org\/peer-review?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peer Review guide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Scholarly vs. Popular Sources<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not all sources are created equal.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Scholarly sources<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (like academic journals) are written by experts for other scholars or students. They include citations, technical language, and more rigorous journals put their articles through peer review. Meaning something can technically be a scholarly source but not peer-reviewed.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Popular sources<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (like magazines, news sites, or blogs) are written for a general audience. They\u2019re easier to read but usually don\u2019t include detailed evidence or references.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Evaluating Your Sources<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even scholarly sources should be evaluated for credibility and bias. Try the <\/span><b>CRAAP Test<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; looking at <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Purpose<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; learn more about this in our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.consortiumlibrary.org\/evaluation?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Evaluating Information guide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>In short:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peer review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> = expert quality check.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scholarly sources<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> = research-based and cited.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Popular sources<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> = accessible but less rigorous.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Always evaluate your sources<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> before using them.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you\u2019re doing research, it\u2019s important to know where your information comes from &#8211; and how much you can trust it. What Is Peer Review? Peer review is a quality check for academic work. Before a research article is published, it\u2019s sent to other experts in the same field (\u201cpeers\u201d) to evaluate the methods, accuracy, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2203,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions\/2203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consortiumlibrary.org\/blogs\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}