How can you tell the difference
between different types of periodicals?
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Popular magazines
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Trade, industry and professional publications
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Scholarly
(or "academic"
or "peer-reviewed") journals
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AUTHOR
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Usually a staff writer or journalist. Sometimes the author's name is not provided.
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Writers with subject knowledge or practitioners and professionals.
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Primarily experts, often university researchers, whose credentials are usually included.
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AUDIENCE
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Written for the "average" person who doesn't have in-depth knowledge of a topic.
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Multiple levels of readers: general public to practitioners and professionals.
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Aimed at professionals, researchers, scholars, or others with more in-depth knowledge of the topic.
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CONTENT
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Entertainment, opinion, current topics, quick facts.
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Trends, forecasts, news and events in the field; products, book reviews, employment, biography.
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Research, analysis, scholarship. Often includes abstract, research methods, conclusion, bibliography.
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LENGTH
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Shorter articles providing broad overviews of topics.
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Short newsy items to longer, in-depth articles.
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Longer articles providing in-depth analysis of topics.
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APPEARANCE
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Glossy, color pictures, advertisements.
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Ads related to the field or profession. Charts, tables, illustrations.
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Dense text, usually with graphs and charts, fewer specialized, advertisements.
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CREDIBILITY
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Articles are generally evaluated by staff editors rather than experts in the field.
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Articles reviewed by editors from professional associations or commercial/trade organizations.
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Articles reviewed by a "jury" of experts--"peer-reviewed" or "refereed"—before publication.
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EXAMPLES
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People, Essence, Hispanic, Good Housekeeping, Out, Time, Vogue, Sports Illustrated
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RN, Library Journal, Professional Builder, Contractor Magazine, Restaurant Hospitality
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Journal of American History, Nature, Journal of Business, Lancet, Bioscience
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