All scholarly sources are credible, but not all credible sources are scholarly
Credible sources that are not scholarly or academic:
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Popular Articles:
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Scholarly Articles:
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Examples of Popular Publications:
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Examples of Scholarly Publications:
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You can limit your search to scholarly articles by checking the "peer-reviewed articles" filter before or after you search in a library database.
The CRAP Checklist is a tool that can help you determine if a resource is useful for college level writing. Each letter in CRAP stands for a concept:
Asking these questions can help evaluate the information you are finding, each letter in CRAP has four yes or no question. The more "yes" boxes you tic off, the higher the score, the better the resource.
Try It!
Use the CRAP Checklist below to evaluate what you find.
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Primary Sources:
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Secondary Sources:
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In scholarship, a document or record containing firsthand information or original data on a topic, used in preparing a derivative work. Primary sources include original manuscripts, periodical articles reporting original research or thought, diaries, memoirs, letters, journals, photographs, drawings, posters, film footage, sheet music, songs, interviews, government documents, public records, eyewitness accounts, newspaper clippings, etc |
Any published or unpublished work that is one step removed from the original source, usually describing, summarizing, analyzing, evaluating, derived from, or based on primary source materials, for example, a review, critical analysis, second-person account, or biographical or historical study. Also refers to material other than primary sources used in the preparation of a written work. |
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Examples of Primary Sources:
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Examples of Secondary Sources:
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Definitions found in Reitz, Joan M. Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science. (2013). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.