|
Popular
and Scholarly Sources
Here is a comparison chart between popular magazines, and two
types of journals. Most often, when your instructors are
asking you to find journal articles they are asking you to look at
scholarly journals.
|
Type of Source |
Popular
Magazines |
Trade
Journals |
Scholarly
Journals |
|
Examples
|
The
Economist
Psychology Today
Time
National Geographic |
Advertising
Age
The CPA Journal
Billboard
American Libraries
|
Journal
of Social Issues
Adolescence
Race, Gender & Class
Science |
|
Audience
|
For
the general public; use language understood by the average
reader |
For
those in a particular trade or industry
|
For
students, scholars, researchers; uses specialized vocabulary
of the discipline |
|
Content
|
May
report research as news items, feature stories, editorials
and opinion pieces |
Reports
on problems or issues in a particular industry
|
Reports
original research, theory; may include an abstract |
|
Appearance
|
Highly
visual, a lot of advertising, color, photos, short articles
with no bibliographies or references
|
Visual,
contains advertising,
color, photos,
|
Little
or no advertising, has tables & charts, high concentration
of print, lengthy articles, bibliographies & references
|
|
Authors
|
Author
may not be named, frequently a staff writer, not a subject
expert |
Staff
writers, freelance authors
|
Authors
are specialists, articles are signed, & credentials such
as degrees, university affiliation are often given. |
|
