| Type of source | Examples | Purpose | Authors | Audience | Publishers | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SCHOLARLY |
Certain books; scientific/academic journals |
To advance knowledge in an academic discipline |
Researchers, professors, experts | Academics, scientists, policymakers, students | Scientific/academic publishers (may be commercial or nonprofit) | Usually peer-reviewed |
| POPULAR | News articles, magazines, op-ed pieces, some books | To discuss current trends, events, ideas | Journalists, politicians, occasionally scholars | General public | Commercial publishers, newspapers, magazines | Not peer-reviewed, but may go through an editorial process like fact-checking |
| GREY LITERATURE | Issue briefs, policy papers, case studies, technical reports | To further the mission of the organization that funded and/or published it | Practitioners, experts, government workers, public relations staff | Other practitioners, policymakers, donors, the public | Usually the organization itself | May be biased in favor of the mission of the organization |
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress creates analytical, nonpartisan reports on major policy issues for members and committees of the United States Congress. A 2018 law created provisions for CRS reports to be made available to the public as they are published, and efforts will be made to make the backfile available to the public on the CRS website. For CRS reports published prior to September 2018, there are a variety of organizations and libraries that have made collections available to the public on their own websites.