Popular vs. Scholarly vs. Peer-Reviewed

When conducting research, it's important to rely and build upon the work of scholars before you. You'll find research reports in a variety of places: newspapers, academic journals, trade publications and more.

• Popular - Publications like newspapers and magazines (TIME, Newsweek, etc) are written for the general population. Readers don't need to have expertise to enjoy the articles in these publications. They're written by journalists who aren't necessarily experts on the topic on which they are writing.
  
• Peer-Reviewed (or Refereed) - These titles are edited by a panel of experts. For example, Review of Educational Research's editorial board consists of scholars and experts in educational research across the world. In order to be published in these types of publications, writers must themselves be experts and convince their peers they their work deserves publication.
• Scholarly (or Academic) - Peer-reviewed publications are scholarly, but there are scholarly publications that aren't peer-reviewed. Some titles, like Academic Leadership, are writen by experts, and they are read by experts, but they don't go through the rigorous review process.

Not sure if something is peer-reviewed, scholarly, or popular? Use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory to find out. Search by the journal title, then look for the umpire's uniform to determine if it's "refereed". Click on the title itself to see if it's scholarly.

Finding Stuff at the UT Arlington Library

APA Style

• Citing something? Use the APA Style Guide to Electronic References if you found it online, or use this handy guide from Purdue University.
• Use RefWorks to manage your citations and generate your bibliography, but be sure to proofread it!
• Visit Paper's Due Drop-In for one-on-one help not only with formatting an APA bibliography, but with all writing questions and library research.

Fun Stuff

• The ESP Game
• Library Flickr.com Photo Tour