Popular, Trade & Scholarly Publications |
||||
How can you tell the difference between types of periodicals? | ||||
|
Popular magazines / Newspaper articles |
Trade, industry and professional journals |
Journals of commentary and opinion |
Scholarly & research journals |
AUTHOR |
Usually a staff writer or journalist. Sometimes the author's name is not provided. |
Writers with subject knowledge or practitioners and professionals. |
Great variety: specialists, journalists, organizational members, others. |
Primarily experts, often university researchers, whose credentials are usually included. |
AUDIENCE |
Written for the "average" person who doesn't have in-depth knowledge of a topic. |
Multiple levels of readers: general public to practitioners and professionals. |
General audience, high school and up. |
Aimed at professionals, researchers, scholars, or others with more in-depth knowledge of the topic. |
CONTENT |
Entertainment, opinion, current topics, quick facts. |
Trends, forecasts, news and events in the field; products, book reviews, employment, biography. |
Commentary on social and political issues, specific viewpoints, book reviews. |
Research, analysis, scholarship. Often includes abstract, research methods, conclusion, bibliography. |
LENGTH |
Shorter articles providing broad overviews of topics or recent news and trends. |
Short newsy items to longer, in-depth articles. |
Varies: short, pithy, articles to more in-depth discussion. An issue may be devoted to a particular topic. |
Longer articles providing in-depth analysis of topics.* |
APPEARANCE |
Glossy, color pictures, advertisements (magazines). |
Ads related to the field or profession. Charts, tables, illustrations. |
Varies considerably. Some have graphics and advertisements. |
Dense text, usually with graphs and charts, fewer specialized, advertisements. |
CREDIBILITY |
Articles are generally evaluated by staff editors rather than experts in the field. |
Articles reviewed by editors from professional associations or commercial/trade organizations. |
Publications support a particular viewpoint or specific interest group. Opinionated. |
Articles reviewed by a "jury" of experts--"peer-reviewed" or "refereed"—before publication.* |
EXAMPLES |
Magazines: People, Essence, Hispanic, Good Housekeeping, Out, Time, Vogue, Sports Illustrated Newspapers: Seattle Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal. |
RN, Library Journal, Professional Builder, Contractor Magazine, Restaurant Hospitality |
National Review, America, Harper’s, New Republic, Commentary, Progressive, Atlantic |
Journal of American History, Nature, Journal of Business, Lancet, Bioscience |
Adapted from ACC Library Services Libguides.
There's a world of information available to us. So much, in fact, it can be overwhelming!
Use the resources on this tab to help you decide where to turn for each step of your research process.