Finding and Comparing Scholarly, Popular, and Trade Journal Articles
Contents
- What is a Scholarly Journal?
- Comparison Chart of Characteristics of Journals
- Finding Articles in Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journals
What is a scholarly journal?
Your instructor has asked you to find an article in a scholarly (or professional or refereed or peer-reviewed) journal. Scholarly journals differ from popular magazines and trade journals/magazines in a number of ways. (See "Comparison Chart" below.) A primary difference between scholarly journals and other types of journals and magazines is that articles in these journals undergo a "peer review" process before they are published. What does this mean?
- Peer review is the process by which an author's peers, recognized researchers in the field, read and evaluate a paper (article) submitted for publication and recommend whether the paper should be published, revised, or rejected.
- Peer review is a widely accepted indicator of quality scholarship in a discipline or field. Articles accepted for publication through a peer review process meet the discipline's expected standards of expertise.
- Peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals are scholarly journals that only publish articles that have passed through this review process.
The following characteristics can help you distinguish between these and two other types of periodicals: popular magazines and trade publications. If in doubt, ask your teacher or a librarian for assistance.
Comparing Characteristics of Journals/Magazines
| CRITERIA | SCHOLARLY JOURNALS | POPULAR MAGAZINES | TRADE PUBLICATIONS |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUTHOR | Expert (scholar, professor, researcher, etc.) in field covered. Author is always named. | Journalist; nonprofesional or layperson. Sometimes author is not named. | Business or industry representative. Sometimes author is not named. |
| NOTES | Usually includes notes and/or bibliographic references. | Few or no notes or bibliographic references. | Few or no notes or bibliographic references. |
| CONTENTS | News and research (methodology, theory) from the field. | Current events; general interest. | Business or industry information (trends, products, techniques). |
| STYLE | Written for experts using technical language. | Journalistic; written for nonprofessional or layperson. | Written for people in the business or industry using technical language. |
| AUDIENCE | Scholars or researchers in the field. | General public. | People in the business or industry. |
| REVIEW | Usually reviewed by peer scholars (referees) not employed by the journal. | Reviewed by one or more editors employed by the magazine. | Reviewed by one or more editors employed by the magazine. |
| APPEARANCE | Plain; mostly print, sometimes with black and white figures, tables, graphs and/or charts. | Glossy, with many pictures in color. | Glossy, with many pictures in color. |
| ADS | Few or none; if any, usually for books or other professional materials. | Many, often in color. | Some, often in color. |
| FREQUENCY | Usually monthly or quarterly. | Usually weekly or monthly. | Usually weekly or monthly. |
| EXAMPLES | Developmental Psychology (published by the American Psychological Association). | Rolling Stone (commercially published). | Monitor on Psychology (published by the American Psychological Association). |
Finding Articles in Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journals
Some of the Library's article databases, e.g. Academic Search Premier and Proquest Research Library allow one to limit search results to ăpeer reviewedä or ăscholarlyä articles by:- checking the box "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" under limit or refine search.
- clicking on the tab "Scholarly Journals" or "Academic Journals" while viewing results of a search.
Keep in mind, even though a particular journal is peer reviewed, an individual item in that journal may not be. Some article types, e.g. news items, comments, editorials, may not have gone through the peer review process. Scholarly articles are generally several pages long.
Still not sure? Peer reviewed journals can be identified using a number of other resources, for example:
- Ulrich's periodicals directory. The latest edition is located at the Reference Desk on the First Floor of Love Library. Journals that are ăpeer-reviewedä will be identified with an arrow symbol next to the title.
- Search the title of a journal/magazine on the Web and look at information the publisher provides for this. You can generally tell if this publication is scholarly or peer reviewed by looking for characteristics listed in the table above.
