ARTICLES
Journals, magazines, and newspapers can be divided into four basic categories:
1. Scholarly
2. General Interest / Substantive News
3. Popular
4. Sensational
SCHOLARLY journals require articles to be reviewed by other experts or scholars in the same field (thus "peer reviewed") who must agree that the article in question meets the standards of that profession. This ensures that the content of the article is as valid and reliable as possible.
How do you tell if a journal is scholarly? Look for an abstract, or citations in the form of bibliographies. These are both clues. Most importantly, though, the databases in GALILEO allow you to modify your searches to include only those materials that are peer reviewed!
(More information on the four basic categories can be found here!)
BOOKS
Think "APPLE".
Author - is the author an expert in his/her field?
Purpose - what kind of information is the book trying to convey?
Publisher - who made the book available?
Language - how sophisticated is the language used in the text?
Evidence - what sources does the author use to draw conclusions?
(This is just a brief list - for more on distinguising a popular book from a scholarly book, go HERE!)