| Authors are ... | Anyone can write for popular sources, some may have expertise in the field, some do not |
| Audience is ... | General readers |
| Sources are... | Not required and rarely included. Authors not asked to show evidence for claims |
| Edited or Reviewed... | Some sources are reviewed by an editor, and some are fact checked, but there is no one standard for evidence |
Can be used with the requirements "Credible Sources" IF they are actually checked for credibility. (For more information on evaluating a source for credibility, check out the Evaluating Sources tab on this guide).
| Authors are .... | Subject Experts with credentials. Generally written by people with expertise in the specific topic they are writing about. |
| Audience is ... | Other scholars, researchers, and students |
| Sources are ... | Provided in footnotes, reference list, or bibliography. Claims made in scholarly sources should have evidence that is easily found and can be evaluated |
| Edited or Reviewed ... | Scholarly articles and books are reviewed before publishing. Some are "Peer reviewed" which means that they are reviewed by experts in the same field to check that their sources are clear and evidence is provided. |
Can be used with the requirement "Scholarly Sources". If your requirement is for "Peer reviewed sources", these will be scholarly sources that come from a peer reviewed journal. You can easily find Peer Reviewed sources by checking the Peer Reviewed filter in any library database.
| Authors are ... | Experienced in their field, although academic credentials are not required. |
| Audience is ... | Other people working in the same field, general readers, scholars. |
| Sources are ... | Not always required in articles. Some journals or magazines may cite sources, some may not. |
| Edited or Reviewed ... | Generally published Trade or Industry Sources have editors, but they may not engage in fact checking or checking for cited sources. |
Can be used with the requirement "Credible Sources" or "Trade or Industry Sources". By using Trade or Industry sources you have already done some of the work to evaluate your source for credibility, since you know that the author has some expertise in the field they are writing about.