What are the differences between scholarly journals & popular magazines?
|Scholarly Journals||Popular / General Interest Magazines|
|Purpose||Exists to communicate information
||Exists to make a profit
|Format and Appearance||Serious
|Article Selection||Written by scholars or researchers in the field or discipline.
||Authors may be on staff and appear from issue to issue.
|Publishers||Generally published by a professional organization||Published by commercial enterprises for profit|
||Contain bibliographies or footnotes.||Sources are rarely cited.|
What if you are using an online, full-text article?
Of course, it is a little trickier determining what a scholarly article is when you don't have the whole journal or magazine in your hand. However, there are still some clues that may help you:
- Look for a list of references (a bibliography) at the end of the article.
- If the article is less than half a page in length, it is not likely to be a research article!
- Look for credentials after the name of the author(s).
- Does the title of the source (journal name) have the word "journal" in it? If it does, chances are it is more scholarly.
- In some article databases (indexes) you can limit your search to "peer reviewed" or "refereed" journals (scholarly journals).
- Use the chart above to help you evaluate the article.
Finally, if you are still unsure, ask a librarian or your instructor!
From the University College of the Cariboo Library