Related Guides: Find Articles - The Basics, Find a Scholarly Article
Many of your assignments / speeches for your courses may ask you to use specific sources or types of sources such as popular magazine articles or professional or scholarly journal articles.
There are some basic ways to identify these types of periodicals:
| Popular | Popular | Scholarly | Scholarly | |
| Newspaper Try It |
Magazine Try It |
Trade Try It |
Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Try It |
|
| Currency | Published daily | Published weekly, monthly, or quarterly | Published monthly or quarterly | Published monthly, quarterly, or semi annually |
| Relevancy | Articles give news of the day or current events | Articles focus on any general topic or on topics of interest to a specific group | Articles give practical information to people in an industry | Articles are usually reports on scholarly research or case studies |
| Relevancy | Newspapers contain many photographs and advertisements | Magazines contain many photographs and advertisements | Trade publications include some illustrations given usually as charts, graphs, etc. | Illustrations usually take the form of charts and graphs. Scholarly journals contain few photographs or advertisements |
| Authority | Authors may or may not be named, usually a freelance writer or journalist, not a subject expert | Authors may or may not be named, a staff writer or freelance writer, not a subject expert | Authors are named, a specialists or professional in the industry | Authors are experts in their field or industry, articles are signed, and credentials such as degrees, university affiliation are often given |
| Authority | Articles are written at the 8th grade level | Articles are written at the 8th grade level | Articles use jargon of the industry | Articles use jargon of the subject discipline; written for scholars, researchers, or professionals in the discipline |
| Accuracy | There is no peer review process | There is no peer review process | There may be a peer review process, but not as rigorous as scholarly articles | Articles go through a peer review process before being accepted for publication |
| Accuracy | Authors often mention sources, but do not include a bibliography | Authors often mention sources, but do not include a bibliography | Authors often mention sources, and include a limited bibliography | Authors cite their sources in endnotes, footnotes, or reference section |
|
Purpose |
To find current information about local, national, and international events | To find information or opinions about popular culture, to find general articles written for people who are not necessarily specialists in the topic area | To find information on problems, issues or solutions in a specific industry. Use for college research | Reports on scholarly research or case studies. Use for college research |
| Purpose Appearance (Look and Feel) |
Catchy article titles, color, photos, short articles | Catchy covers, a lot of advertising, colorful, photos, short articles | Visual cover, contains advertising related to the industry, color, photos, average 3-5 page articles | Plain covers, little or no advertising, has tables & charts, high concentration of print, lengthy articles 7-25 pages |
| Purpose Intent: Persuade, Entertain, Inform |
Articles are meant to inform and entertain. Written for the general public | Articles are meant to inform, persuade, and entertain. Written for the general public | Articles are meant to inform people in the industry. Written for people in the industry or seeking employment in the industry | Articles are meant to inform. Articles are geared toward scholars, researchers, or professionals |