Popular or Scholarly?
How to Recognize Scholarly Publications
Popular Periodicals | Scholarly Periodicals | Grey Areas | Trade Publications | Internet Resources
Popular Periodicals (Magazines)
| Length of Articles | • Short (1-5 pages |
| Audience | • General, non-academic, non-specialized audience |
| Authority/Expertise | • Journalists, rather than researchers or specialists in a given field |
| Bibliography | • None |
| Frequency | • Published frequently (i.e., weekly, biweekly or monthly) |
| Inclusions | • Many photographs or other illustrations |
| Subjects | • Variety of topic/subject areas (Time, The New Yorker, National Review) |
| Vocabulary | • Use conventional/conversational language, as opposed to a specialized vocabulary |
Scholarly Periodicals (Journals)
| Length | • Lengthy (5-50 pages) |
| Audience | • Intended for an academic or scholarly audience |
| Authority/Expertise | • Publish articles written by academics, specialists or researchers in the field (as opposed to articles written by journalists reporting on or synthesizing research). • Are often produced under the editorial supervision of a professional association (e.g., Journal of the American Medical Association) or by a scholarly press (e.g., Elsevier, Pergamon). • Articles go through a rigorous review process (sometimes called ‘refereed’ or ‘peer-reviewed’) by experts in the field before they are selected for publication. |
| Bibliography | • Always present at the end of the article. • Sometimes called ‘References’, ‘Reference List’, ‘Works Cited’, ‘Endnotes’ depending on publication style. Allows the reader to consult the same material that the author used in his/her research. |
| Frequency | • Usually monthly, quarterly, or once or twice per year. |
| Inclusions | • Often publish reviews of the literature. • Charts or tables • Rare use of news photos and other types of graphics unless the research is visual in nature, such as art, design or architecture. • Little or no advertising |
| Subject Coverage | • Generally confined to a single, very specific aspect of a subject area (e.g., music theory, European political science, film studies, language development). |
| Vocabulary | • Use technical or specialized vocabulary |
Grey Areas
There are always grey areas with respect to pinning down what is popular or scholarly. Titles like Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, Parabola, and Science contain sophisticated writing, footnoted articles, and authors that hold advanced degrees. At the same time, they display advertisements, have regular columns, photos, and brief articles, and are published by large media conglomerates.
If you are concerned about whether the article you want to use falls within a particular category, look for a bibliography, or lack of one, at the end of the article. Also, look for a brief biography of the author, either at the beginning of the article, or at the end of the publication, for information about the author's education and/or institutional affiliation. Most publications will identify the department and college, university or research lab where the author works.
Trade or Professional Publications
There is a third type of publication, often referred to as trade or professional. These publications are geared towards very specific audiences, usually managers or administrators in business, finance, and industry. They are issued weekly or monthly to take advantage of fast-breaking changes in products or technology, and often contain regular columns of news and commentary, as well as lengthier articles about current issues and trends of interest to people in the field. These publications sometimes include ‘how to’ articles, and valuable, practical advice for practitioners in a given area. Articles may be written by specialists or journalists.
Examples of better known trade publications in business include Beverage Industry, Adweek, and Food Processing. Examples of professional publications for the field of education would include publications such as Teacher or Instructor.
This page is based on a document produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Twin Cities. Available from http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/orientation/popularvsscholarly.doc.
Internet Resources
- Types of Periodicals - Ithaca College
- How to Identify Scholarly/Peer-reviewed/Academic Journals - Ithaca College