Scholarly Journals vs Popular Magazines

Question: What is a scholarly journal?

Answer: A scholarly journal contains articles that have been reviewed by experts and considered to meet the requirements necessary to be included in the journal. Their main purpose is to disseminate research rather than to make a profit.

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 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 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

Use a database, such as Ulrichsweb.com, which will tell you if a journal is scholarly (peer-reviewed or refereed)

The University of Texas at Dallas

Page Maintained by Carol Oshel

The Eugene McDermott Library

Last Updated: May 26, 2005

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