Research Guides: BIOL 456: Advanced Topics in Biology of Marine Life (HC) Fall 2019: Types of Literature

Popular Literature Versus Scholarly Literature

	Popular	Scholarly
Author	Staff writer; journalist	Expert in the field; known credentials
Audience	General public	Scholars, researchers
Language	Little technical language or subject-specific jargon	Uses technical language and subject-specific jargon
Coverage	Broad topics; shallow coverage; shorter length	Narrow topics; in-depth coverage; longer length
Documentation	Usually no bibliography	Bibliography present
Peer-reviewed?	No	Often

Primary literature

A primary research article in the sciences reports the findings of original research done by the authors of the article.
Primary research articles are usually published in peer-reviewed journals.
A primary research article poses a research question or states a hypothesis.
To determine whether or not you've found a primary research article, scan the article (or even just the abstract). Look for an introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections.

Review literature

Review articles in the sciences summarize previously reported findings rather than present new findings, often pulling together the findings of multiple primary research articles. In doing so, review literature often gives a broader view of the current state of understanding in a given topic area.