In order to determine which sources are most authoritative and will best meet your needs for a particular project, you have to understand the types of information sources that exist. You'll use information sources in print and online formats, which may include: textbooks or encyclopedias, books, magazine, newspaper, or journal articles, videos, websites, etc.

These sources may be popular (written for a general audience) or scholarly (written for an academic audience), which require different amounts of research, writing, and review. You'll use both popular and scholarly sources, depending on the project.

• Compile and synthesize the most important information about a subject from other scholarly sources
• Provide an overview of essential knowledge on a subject
• May be general (World Encyclopedia) or subject specific (Dictionary of Psychology)
• Are an excellent place to begin
• Are not intended to be read cover to cover
• Provide background, main concepts, and organization of a topic
• Provide the important vocabulary and terms you'll use when you begin to search for more information
• Can be in print or online, such as Wikipedia

Here, the word "popular" is used to describe something that is intended for use by the general public.

Popular information sources:

• May be online, in print, or both
• Include some books, as well as magazines, newspapers, blogs, websites, product catalogs and reviews, and company annual reports
• Are published on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and can take anywhere from a day (newspapers) to months (in-depth magazine articles) to produce
• Are written by paid journalists or authors who may not have subject expertise
• May report on current trends and events as well as research from scholarly sources
• Often do not include bibliographies or lists of sources
• May be reviewed by editors or may be self-published

• Scholarly sources are also called academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed sources
• Scholarly sources can take months or years to produce and publish because of the research and review process that goes into creating them
• Let's take a look at this research and review process:
  • Researchers identify a question or topic in need of further investigation
  • Researchers conduct research or experiments, then write about their findings
  • Researchers submit the article to a peer-reviewed journal or, if it's a book, to an academic press or publisher
  • The article or book is reviewed by other experts (the researchers' peers) in the same field as the researcher
  • Peer-reviewers may suggest or require changes, or they may reject the work entirely
  • Researchers make changes based on the reviewers' comments
  • The article or book is published in print and/or digital formats