Scholarly Journals vs Popular Magazines

Question: Why should I use scholarly journals for my research papers?

Answer: Because your finished research paper is only as good as the sources that you use to create it, regardless of how much time and effort that you invest. The majority of your research, therefore, should come from reliable, scholarly sources. Use popular magazines as a way to add interest, popular interpretation of the research, and to present a well-rounded final paper.

Question: How do I know if I have a scholarly journal?

Answer: Here are three methods that you can use to judge whether or not your article is from a scholarly journal:

Use a database that allows you to limit your search to scholarly journals, for example Academic Search Premier
Use a database, such as Ulrichsweb.com, which will tell you if a journal is scholarly (peer-reviewed or refereed)
Use these criteria to judge the journal in your hand:

	Scholarly Journals	Popular Magazines
ALTERNATE NAMES	Also called Peer-reviewed Journals or Refereed Journals	Also called Trade Journals
APPEARANCE OF JOURNAL	Mainly text, plain paper, very little color, minimal advertising, may contain charts and illustrations	Glossy paper, lots of color, photographs, lots of advertising
TITLE OF JOURNAL	Frequently contains the word journal, bulletin, annals or review	Catchy and easily recognized
ARTICLE CONTENTS	Introduction, methods, results, conclusion, bibliography, references, graphs, diagrams, author's credentials	Opinions, general facts, entertaining articles
INTENDED AUDIENCE	Subject experts and students	General public
PURPOSE OF JOURNAL	To spread research results to experts in the field, researchers and students	To entertain, and to make money for the publishers
TITLE OF ARTICLES	Long, descriptive, specific and formal	Informal, short, catchy and often funny. They may sound like a newspaper headline
ARTICLE AUTHOR'S CREDENTIALS	Expert in the subject. The author's credentials, such as university affiliation and degrees, are clearly stated	Reporters and journalists, but may not be clear, and could be anyone
LENGTH OF ARTICLES	Usually more than 5 pages	Usually less than 5 pages
EXAMPLES	Journal of Management in Engineering Journal of Materials Chemistry	People, Newsweek Time, Psychology Today

The University of Texas at Dallas

Page Maintained by Carol Oshel

The Eugene McDermott Library

Last Updated September 1, 2004