While there are many types of literature, we're going to focus on three types, popular literature, grey literature and scholarly literature. You will likely find there's a lot of popular literature, some grey literature, and little scholarly literature on COVID-19.
The majority of content on COVID-19 right now is popular literature. This is information that can be found in magazines, newspapers, blogs, podcasts and more. It is accessible, easy to understand and usually created for the general public. You don't need to be an expert to understand the content. This information is predominantly created by journalists and may or may not include sources.
Some signs to look for your article might be popular literature:
This information is helpful because it is usually the most recent information on a topic. It is information that can change as new information is found, and is not typically written by experts.
Not all of the information that you need will be found in academic journals. In fact, most information about COVID-19 will be from what we call "grey literature". You may need to find professional guidelines, government reports, or trade publications. Grey literature can be found on various websites, including on the website of professional associations and organizations, and research institutes. This information is usually the most current and accurate information vs popular literature that is the most current but not the most accurate. Since this information can be published faster than traditional scholarly and peer-reviewed articles, evaluation is even more important. We'll learn more about evaluating information on the next page.
Note: The below video discusses grey literature and gives examples from a health perspective. However, grey literature exists in all disciplines, not just health-related.
Scholarly or academic sources are typically the most reliable type of information. It is published by experts in the field, like the grey literature above, but has also gone through what is called the "peer review process" and adds an additional level of credibility and accuracy. The information is typically original research with a very specific research focus and the goal is to increase our understanding of the topic.
To identify a scholarly sources you are going to want to look for some helpful indicators.
The peer review process is typically,
So not only are these written by experts, but they are checked by other experts!
You may find that peer-reviewed articles are hard to come by in your search because this peer review process takes time. This also doesn't include all the time it took to collect their data and write it. Research can take months or even years. Medical research has additional layers of bench testing, lab testing, human testing and more.
Think back to the information cycle on the last page. You will find popular literature near the start of the cycle, grey literature somewhere in the middle and scholarly literature near the end (but not quite the end). See the video below on comparing popular and scholarly literature, grey literature will fall somewhere between them. Then complete the exercise at the end.
Icon attributions: new created by Gregor Cresnar from Noun Project magazine created by Arthur Shlain from Noun Project academic created by hans draiman from Noun Project
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