Final answer:
Scholarly articles are characterized by peer-review, specialized content, and reliable information, typically found in scholarly journals accessible through academic databases.
Step-by-step explanation:
Scholarly articles can be distinguished from popular articles because they're typically peer-reviewed and published by academic researchers. These articles usually contain specialized information and technical vocabulary, making them highly reliable sources after you have developed specific research questions. Peer-reviewed articles found in scholarly journals provide strong evidence for an author's claims because they undergo rigorous evaluation by other experts in the same field before publication.
Furthermore, the structure of a scholarly article generally includes several sections, such as an abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and references, similar to a lab report. If you're conducting research and need authoritative sources, it's recommended to look for relevant scholarly articles first through academic databases accessible via library resources.
In contrast, nonacademic sources like magazine and newspaper articles offer broader perspectives on current events or discoveries and are more accessible, but they might lack the depth and scrutiny provided by the academic publishing process.