Scholarly vs Popular resources for Research
Scholarly vs. Popular Resources
There are basically two types of resources from which
factual information may be pulled – either scholarly or popular resources.
Popular resources refer to the books and magazines you can find at your local
bookstore, as well as many sites found on the Internet. Scholarly writing is
usually confined to journals or textbooks, which are harder to find in the
market and are usually read by academics. Take a moment to think of some
popular and scholarly resources you typically consult. With those examples in
mind, consider the following: While reliable information can be found in both
sources, scholarly works are considered more credible because they typically
contain a multitude of references and undergo a more rigorous trial of
verification, including strict publishing guidelines and a peer-review process.
For this Application, you will analyze the differences
between scholarly and popular writing by reviewing an article in one of the
most popular student resources, Wikipedia, and compare it to both an article
retrieved from the Walden Library and content retrieved from a credible
professional website.
– Visit
Wikipedia.com and search using the term accounting. After perusing the
information, would you consider this to be a credible resource? Why or why not?
Is it scholarly?
– Is it
ever permissible to use nonscholarly resources and why? What resources would
you opt to use if you were unable to locate a peer-reviewed article? Why would
you select these resources?
– Find a
site on the Internet that would be a credible resource for use in the field of
accounting. Include the link and then describe why you selected this site and
why it would be useful for managers. What reasoning did you use to determine
the credibility of this site?
– Retrieve
a relevant accounting article from one of the management databases within the
Walden Library. How could you determine if the resource that you are reviewing
is biased in its information or viewpoint?
