DIET 201: Applied Nutrition Lab
Your Librarian
What are Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly, and Popular?
Peer-Review (Refereed): The process an article may go through prior to being published. Peer-review involves multiple experts in a particular field reading an article, making comments and suggestions, and sending back to the author for revision. Not all articles are peer-reviewed.
Scholarly: An article whose intended audience is experts in their field and is written by experts. While most scholarly publications are peer-reviewed, they are not always. However, if an article is peer-reviewed, it is typically scholarly.
Popular: Articles that are published without going through the peer-review process. They are typically written for the general public. Examples of resources that offer popular articles include The New York Times, Time, and People. Popular articles may be edited, but this is not the same as peer-review.
Library Resources
Library resources are organized so they are easily found. We typically have things that cannot be found through Google because they are part of the deep web.
- Catalog: print and eBooks
- Databases: electronic articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers
- Journals: print and electronic
- Subject Guides: see the newest and best of what we have on many subjects
- ILL: borrow materials from libraries across the country...for free!
- LOUIS Card: borrow materials from other universities around Louisiana
- WorldCat: see what resources are held by others libraries around the world
What are Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly, and Popular?
Peer-Review (Refereed): The process an article may go through prior to being published. Peer-review involves multiple experts in a particular field reading an article, making comments and suggestions, and sending back to the author for revision. Not all articles are peer-reviewed.
Scholarly: An article whose intended audience is experts in their field and is written by experts. While most scholarly publications are peer-reviewed, they are not always. However, if an article is peer-reviewed, it is typically scholarly.
Popular: Articles that are published without going through the peer-review process. They are typically written for the general public. Examples of resources that offer popular articles include The New York Times, Time, and People. Popular articles may be edited, but this is not the same as peer-review.
The Web
Search engine resources are organized based on a lot of different variables including popularity (not correctness), the platform you are using, and your personal searching habits. Popular search engines include:
Academic and Government
These sites typically have information you can trust. Other ways to find websites in this category are to learn how togoogle efficiently or look at the subject guides.
News and Blogs
Some good ones are listed here, but anything found on a News or Blog website should be evaluated before you cite it.
Social Media
Social media is a great place for breaking news or getting the opinions of your community on a particular event. Anything used for academic purposes should be very closely evaluated.
Wikipedia
Ways to use Wikipedia appropriately:
- check the References section to find citations for more reputable things
- familiarize yourself with jargon that might be good search terms for the databases
If Wikipedia is banned by your professor, you should definitely not use it. Info learned on Wikipedia should always be verified with a more reputable source. Two library databases excellent for this are Literati and CQ Researcher.