The most important difference between a scholarly publication and a popular magazine or newspaper is the peer-review process. A peer-reviewed scholarly journal article has been through a peer review process defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a process by which a scholarly work (such as an article or a research proposal) is checked by a group of experts in the same field to make sure it meets the necessary standards before it is accepted for publication. In other words, the authors' peer group in the same academic discipline will review the work. If an article is about political science, professors with doctorates in political science at a university may review the article.

Here are some links that help explain differences between scholarly and popular sources: