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Anthropology Research Guide

Scholarly, Authoritative, or Popular?

  Scholarly (peer-reviewed, academic) Authoritative Popular
Audience other scholars/researchers everyone everyone
Vocabulary specialized language of the field, "jargon" professional language common language
Structure very structured (abstract, intro, methods, conclusion, bibliography) can be structured for clarity more story-like, shorter with minimal headings
Sources many sources in the bibliography sometimes includes a few sources or footnotes no bibliography
Review blind reviewed by other scholars  fact checked by the organization sometimes reviewed by an editor
Examples Ethnic and Racial Studies; Gender & Society; International Migration Review; American Journal of Public Health; Latin American Perspectives Government Publications, World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Time; Yahoo; Newsweek; Business Week;
US News & World Report; New York Times; Christian Science Monitor
Author(s) scholar(s) experts or reputable organizations non-experts or journalists