Computing and Informatics Research Guide

Scholarly articles

• are written by scholars (experts in the field);
• always provide names and credentials of the author (s);
• always cite their sources in the form of footnotes, bibliographies, or references;
• are usually long and often contain graphs, tables, and charts and few, if any, pictures;
• use the language of the discipline covered (the jargon of a field) and assume some scholarly background on the part of the reader;
• are usually structured and contain the following sections: abstract, literature review, methodology, study result, conclusion, bibliography.

Popular articles 

• are usually written by staff writers or journalists;
• often do not provide the author's name and credentials;
• rarely cite sources;
• often have many colorful images - photographs, cartoons, drawings, etc.
• contain many advertisements;
• are usually short and provide broad overview of topics;
• are written in simple language and designed to meet a minimal education level.

Both peer-reviewed and refereed journals ARE scholarly journals. The difference lies mainly in the way article review is conducted and the intended audience of a journal.

Peer-reviewed journals.Articles in a peer-reviewed journal must pass the strict review of "peers," who are experts in the field or on the research topic of the article. Audience of the article is always the scholarly reader.

Refereed journals. Articles in a refereed journal have to be reviewed by "referees" who are experts in the field who are not members of the editorial staff or board. Refereed articles are not as rigorously evaluated as peer-reviewed articles. In many cases the article has been subjected to a blind review process by one or more external readers who are not associated with the editorial board of the journal. Audience of the article may be the scholarly reader or the general public.

Conference paper: An original paper presented by the author(s) at a formal gathering of peers, usually at the invitation of the group or organization sponsoring the conference, which may be subsequently published in its proceedings. In the sciences, ground-breaking research results are often publicly introduced in such presentations. Conference papers are usually shorter than scientific journal articles. Many conference papers are peer-reviewed and are considered to be scientific publications. However, instructors may be specific about whether or not students may submit conference papers as references for assignments.

Proceedings: The published record of a conference, congress, symposium, or other meeting sponsored by a society or association, usually but not necessarily including abstracts or reports of papers presented by the participants. When the entire text of the papers presented is included, the result is called transactions. 
The term is also used in the titles of journals published by long-established scholarly societies, for example, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), and also for the records of certain courts of law (see The Proceedings of the Old Bailey).
Conference proceedings may be published in a journal.