2 Types of Sources, Publishers, and Publishing Services

Types of Sources: Popular, Substantive Popular, Professional & Scholarly

Considering the intended audience—how expert one has to be to understand the information—can help you figure out whether the source has sufficient thoroughness/complexity and credibility to meet your needs. It can also help you figure out where to look for these kinds of sources because sources in each category tend to hang out together.

When categorizing this way, it’s probably better to consider the source itself (say, a specific article in The New York Times or a specific PBS documentary) rather than only its publisher (The New York Times or PBS). There are varying degrees of expertise required to understand the sources explained below.

Popular Sources

These sources, such as books, TV shows, newspaper and magazine articles, podcasts, social media, and most websites, are meant for a large general audience and are generally easy to purchase or available for free. Their subjects include news, politics, government, health, music, art, hobbies, what to buy, entertainment, and opinions about the news—anything, really, that we could be interested in.

These types of sources are more attractive than scholarly journals because they have catchy titles, attractive artwork, and many advertisements. Some might quote named sources, identify how they got their experience and expertise, and provide links to other sources, but will likely not include a formal list of footnotes or references at the end.

These sources are published by both commercial and nonprofit publishers. They are written by staff writers, journalists, and sometimes just by people enthusiastic about the subject. News and magazine articles are published after review and approval from editors or producers. Understanding the content of popular sources is usually not difficult, although a subset of popular sources called substantive popular sources requires more effort.

Substantive Popular Sources

This category is a subset of popular sources. Unlike the rest of popular sources, they are aimed at a college-educated audience or those otherwise well-informed on the subject, even though they are available to people in general. They may be more difficult for a complete novice to understand.

Their creators are serious about their intent to inform and want to be thorough. These sources are frequently about the news, health, science, societal problems, politics, and government–but they can be about any topic. Even when they are about entertainers or entertainment, they are intended to inform more than to entertain.

Both the credibility of the author and publisher, and the content’s complexity, are important when identifying this category of sources. To be considered a substantive popular source, a source must be both published by a credible author or publisher and provide an in-depth, well-researched investigation and analysis of a topic or issue. A good example of the combination of readability and depth in substantive popular sources is this article:

“The Really Big One: The Earthquake that Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest,” by Katharyn Schultz, published in The New Yorker, July 13, 2015, and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award.

This article is a great example of freely accessible, but all rights reserved content that could be used in a college classroom. It is critical to note, as well, that while it is currently free-to-access, there is no guarantee that it will remain so. Most New Yorker content is behind a paywall, restricted to subscribers.

Professional Sources

Professional magazine articles, found in publications as Music Teacher and The Library Journal, are meant for people in a particular profession and are often accessible through a professional organization. Staff writers or other professionals in the targeted field write these articles at a level and with the language to be understood by everyone in the profession.

Professional publications are commonly places to find:

• About trends and news from the targeted field, book reviews, and case studies.
• Often less than 10 pages, some of which may contain footnotes and references.
• Usually published by professional associations and commercial publishers.
• Published after approval from an editor.

A good example of a professional publication that could be used as reading in a classroom is this article:

“How Money and Liberty U.’s Leadership Culture Led It Astray,” by Michael Velasquez, published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on January 12, 2024. The same attributes that should be considered regarding the New Yorker article linked above also apply here. In addition, this article is free to read, but requires an account to do so.

Scholarly Sources

There are, broadly, two types of scholarly sources: journal articles and monographs.

Scholarly journal articles (such as those published in College and Research Libraries or the new Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education) are meant for scholars and students in a particular field of study. While they can also be read by members of the public who have an interest in the topic, they are written by experts. They often assume that the reader will already have a significant amount of existing knowledge on the topic. The authors may use discipline-specific terminology or reference developments or events that may be unfamiliar to those who do not have experience in the field. As a result, they can sometimes be challenging to understand for those who do not have a background in the field. Researchers and scholars write these articles to present new knowledge and further understanding of their field of study.

Additionally, they are:

• Where findings of research projects, data and analytics, and case studies usually appear first.
• Frequently long (typically over 10 pages) and always includes footnotes and references.
• Often published by universities, professional associations, and commercial publishers.
• Published after approval by peer review or from the journal’s editor.

Scholarly monographs, book-length works devoted to a single topic, can be intended for a more general audience or can be every bit as in-depth and discipline-specific as the most challenging journal article. Scholarly monographs are regularly assigned in college courses, as are scholarly journal articles. But whereas faculty commonly rely on Fair Use to justify providing electronic PDFs of journal articles to their students, scholarly monographs must be purchased. They are not to be confused with academic textbooks.

Academic Textbooks

Academic textbooks are books designed for use in a classroom, typically offering a foundation-first approach to discussing a broad topic or topics.

Academic textbooks are a primary focus of the U.S. Open Educational Resources Movement. Usually designed so that the content of the book suffices for one or two sixteen-week courses, the academic textbook industry. Academic textbook publishing is a multi-billion-dollar industry, although in 2020 the size of the market decreased to 7.85 billion from 8.39 billion, largely due to the pressure exerted by OER initiatives.

These academic textbooks:

• Are often written by multiple authors or even teams of multiple authors, with an editor or editors given primary billing.
• Employ a foundation-first method to establishing core concepts in a discipline and then moving to more specific topics.
• Go through multiple editions.
• May include questions, discussion prompts, primary source readings, and other exercises.
• Are less-frequently cited in college papers outside introduction-level courses.

Commercial Textbook Publishers, University Publishers, And Open Publishers

There are multiple types of publisher which differ in their approaches and operating models but offer broadly similar services. For academic publishing, this table outlines major publisher types.

Type of Publisher	About	Examples
Commercial Publishers	Commercial publishers are not affiliated to an academic institution. They have a for-profit business model, so money made exceeding operating expenses might be paid to shareholders.	Springer Nature, Taylor and Francis, Bloomsbury Publishing, Brill Publishing, Cappelen Damm/NOASP, De Gruyter. Some well-known publishers are owned by, or imprints of, these organizations, e.g., Palgrave Macmillan (Springer Nature), Routledge (Taylor & Francis).
University Presses	University presses are attached to a university / universities, and often receive financial support from them. They might receive academic support, e.g., peer reviewers or editorial boards might be drawn from the university’s academic staff. If the press makes money exceeding its operating expenses, this might be returned to the university.	Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Manchester University Press, Harvard University Press, Michigan University Press.
New University Presses (NUPs)	These are university presses established since the 1990s, typically explicitly to publish open access books. In many other respects, they are run like a university press. However, as with library publishing (see below), NUPs are regularly library-led, albeit with an academic-led steering group or editorial board.	UCL Press, White Rose University Press, Huddersfield University Press, University of Westminster Press, Scottish Universities Press, Lever Press, Amherst College Press, Stockholm University Press, ANU Press, UTS ePRESS.
Academic-led Presses (ALPs); also known as Scholar-led Presses	These are presses that are not affiliated to an institution, but are run by academics. They are almost all not-for-profit, meaning any money made exceeding operating expenses is reinvested into the running of the press. As with NUPs, many of these presses were founded specifically to publish open access books.	Open Book Publishers, punctum books, Mattering Press, meson press, mediastudies.press, African Minds (which together make up the ScholarLed consortium). The Radical Open Access Collective has a useful directory of academic-led presses.
Library Publishing	Some academic libraries provide publishing services, commonly producing journals but sometimes including books. They might work in tandem with a university press at the same institution.	The Library Publishing Coalition produces an annual directory of the publishing activities of academic and research libraries.

Publishing Services

Most reputable publishers offer a range of services, typically including:

• Peer review
• Editorial support in developing the manuscript (usually in response to peer-review)
• Support in securing third-party permissions
• Copy-editing
• Proof-reading
• Type-setting
• Producing editions in a range of formats (e.g., paperback, hardback, ePub)
• Metadata tagging
• Marketing
• Distribution to open platforms, libraries, and sales outlets
• Archiving
• Reporting the book’s usage (impact)

Costs

Publishers sometimes charge authors for certain services. These can include:

• Book processing charge (BPC): Some publishers charge a fee to publish a book open access;
• Editorial services: Some publishers require the author to pay for these. Alternatively, if your book requires extensive copy-editing, a press might charge for the additional work involved;
• Indexing: Publishers typically expect the author to provide an indexed manuscript, but will provide an indexing service for a fee;
• Image management: If your book includes a large amount of third-party material (e.g., images, video, audio), a publisher might charge a fee to assist with clearing the rights and for the additional typesetting work.