There are many distinctions between the popular and scholarly literature, but these three are basic:

1. Popular literature is written for a general or mass audience. Scholarly literature is written for academics, students and practitioners in the field.
2. Scholarly literature is held to a higher standard. Scholars must use footnotes and a bibliography or Works Cited to account for what sources they have used and to give credit for any ideas that they have borrowed from others; otherwise, they leave themselves open to the very serious charge of plagiarism. (In addition, footnotes and a bibliography allow others to follow the scholar's footsteps; footnotes and the bibliography serve as a map to the path the scholar took.) The popular literature rarely uses footnotes and bibliographies, and it may or may not cite and credit sources. Students are held to the higher standards of the scholarly literature.
3. Popular literature will do "reports " on an issue, event, policy or hypothesis whereas scholarly literature is "theoretical" and will attempt to place the issue, event, policy or hypothesis within a theoretical framework, in order to explain the issue, event, policy or hypothesis.