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Popular vs. Trade vs. Scholarly Journals

 

Popular Journals (Magazines and Newspapers)

Professional, Trade, and Industry Periodicals

Scholarly, Academic, or Peer-Reviewed Journals

Title May have magazine or popular words in the title (Entertainment Weekly, BusinessWoman); popular or catchy titles Sometimes has News in the title. Titles tend to be short and practical (Beverage World, Marketing); straightforward titles, sometimes catchy May have bulletin, journal, or review in the title (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Journal of Water Conservation); titles related to research or results, sometimes long and not catchy

Authors

Reporters, journalists, staff-written.

Staff-written or written by professionals in the field.

Researchers, scholars, professors in the field or specialty with university affiliations. Frequently multiple co-authors.

Purpose

Inform, persuade, entertain with a variety of general interest topics in broad subject fields. Also geared to sell products through advertising.

Examines issues in a particular profession or industry; provides specialized information.

 

To inform or report original research in a specific field to the rest of the scholarly world.

Audience

General public, uses simple language to meet minimum education levels.     

Practitioners of a particular profession, members of a trade, or workers in an industry.

Researchers, experts, students in the field; readers are assumed to have a scholarly background

Availability Can be found on a newsstand or in a book store or library; can sometimes be found online without subscription access Rarely found on a newsstand; requires subscription or library access Not found on newsstand; requires subscription or library access

Writing Style and Vocabulary

Simple, accessible writing and vocabulary

Accessible writing with specialized information for industry members

Sophisticated, high-level writing; technical, discipline-specific vocabulary

Abstracts None None Usually have an abstract at the beginning that summarizes the research

Sources

Not cited; no bibliography

Not cited; no bibliography

Cited with footnotes or bibliography

Advertising

Extensive         

Many ads for products and services related to a particular profession

Few to no ads; announcements for conferences, publications in the field

Graphics

Photographs, glossy covers     

Glossy paper and covers, photos

Plain covers; charts, tables, statistical data

Publishers

Commercial, for-profit   

Industry organizations

Professional society, university, or non-profit organization

Frequency of Publication Frequent; weekly, biweekly, or monthly Frequent; weekly, biweekly, or monthly Less frequent; monthly, quarterly, or semiannually

Peer-reviewed?

No

No

Yes, articles must meet rigorous standards and be reviewed by a panel of experts before being accepted for publication

Examples

Time

New York Times

Sports Illustrated

The Economist

The Week

Restaurant News

Campaign

Marketing News

Medical Laboratory Observer

New England Journal of Medicine

International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Journal of African American History

Pacific Historical Review

Modern Fiction Studies

 

 

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Gathering information from a scholarly article is different from reading a popular article. Most of the time you do not need to read a scholarly article from start to finish in order to understand what it's about. On your first reading of the article, you just need to be concerned with whether the article contains information useful for your research. To do this, you should focus on the following:

  • Abstracts
    • These one or two paragraph summaries at the beginning of the article give you the highlights of the article and the author's findings.

  • Introduction
    • The author introduces the research and may mention other work that has been done on the topic, which could be useful later.

  • Conclusion/Discussions
    • This is where the author discusses what she discovered during her research.

  • References
    • These are sources that the author used, so if this author found them useful, you probably will too.

There may be other parts of the article too, like a Methods or Results section. You will focus on those in later readings. You should read through an article more than once before before using it in your own research.

Rereading the Scholarly Article

Reading through an article once allows you to understand the main ideas of the article. The second or third readings of the article should be in more detail, and are typically from start to finish. They will allow you to pull more details from the article and identify specific elements you'll use later to support your own paper or project. During these readings you should concentrate on the following questions:

  • What is the author's main argument?

  • Does the author agree or disagree with the other research I have found?

  • What evidence does he/she provide? Is the argument well supported?

  • Do the author's conclusions flow logically from his/her argument and evidence?