Scholarly vs. Popular Journals

• Research Minute

Clues to a Scholarly Article/Journal• Usually published or

sponsored by a professional society or association

• List of reviewers on the first few pages (juried, refereed, peer-reviewed)

• Language of the discipline• May have the word

“Journal” in title

• Includes references, bibliography, works cited, statistics, and/or charts

• Author information/affiliation indicated

• Articles are usually lengthy, and include an Abstract

• In-depth coverage of a topic, often presentation of new research

• No illustrations, unless a chart, cover usually plain

• Articles are indexed in specialized databases and indexes, such as PsycInfo or MLA Bibliography

Clues to a Popular Article/Magazine• Written for general public• Vocabulary for general

usage and reading level• Author may be not named• Contains glossy

photographs, catchy graphics

• Short articles, no bibliography, footnotes, references, etc.

• Main purpose to entertain, sell a product, promote a viewpoint

• Probably contains a lot of advertising

• Broad range of topics

• Published by commercial enterprises or individuals Goal: $$$

Electronic Resources: Scholarly vs. Popular• The more subject-specific

the index, the higher the probability that the articles indexed are scholarly.– PsycINFO indexes more

scholarly articles in psychology than Academic Search Complete

• Journal titles with the words "Journal of the" or "Journal for the" in the title are usually scholarly

• Footnotes and/or a bibliography in online scholarly articles

• Typically, the longer the article, the more scholarly

Setting Limits – EBSCOhost Databases

Scholarly

Full Text

Other Clues:

Other Types of PeriodicalsProfessional, Trade, Industry

Written for practitioners – current trends, news, etc.

Commentary & OpinionWritten for general educated audience –

commentaries, political opinion, viewpoints

• Newspapers– Written for general public –

current information, news, local & regional information, etc.