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Popular & Scholarly Journals 

What's the difference between mass-circulation magazines & scholarly journals?
Last update: Mar 30th, 2009 URL: http://guides.smu.edu/popsch  Print Guide  RSS Updates

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Popular Magazines & Popular Journals

Periodicals, also called serials, are often grouped into four categories:

  1. Popular magazines
  2. Scholarly / Professional journals
  3. Trade publications (periodicals intended for the readership of a particular trade or industry)
  4. Tabloid publications

Sometimes it's clear when not to use a particular publication.  Not many of you would consider using the National Enquirer, which falls in category 4, for research.  However, the first two categories are a little more difficult to differentiate; this handout should help with that.  If you are ever unsure whether a particular resource is appropriate, check with your professor or a librarian.  Remember, these are generalizations so there will be exceptions.

 

Popular Magazines

Scholarly Journals

Advertisements

Many of them on about anything

Very few and targeted

Appearance

Colorful, slick, pretty

Serious, tables, graphs, diagrams

Audience

General, hobbyists

Scholars

Author

Staff writers, journalists, unacknowledged

Experts in the field, subject specialists

Availability

Bookstores, newsstands, libraries

Libraries - not usually of interest to the general public

Citations

Maybe, often not

Always - in fact, may be more useful than the article itself

Content

Non-technical, entertaining, opinion-oriented

Original research

Frequency of Publication

Usually weekly or monthly

Monthly, quarterly, yearly

Length

Relatively short

Rather lengthy

Price

Relatively inexpensive

Usually expensive

Publisher

Commercial publishers

University presses, professional associations, some commercial publishers

Purpose

To entertain

To enlighten & further research

Refereed

No

Yes - articles go through a peer review process before they're accepted

Titles

Catchy

Often contains words such as "journal, "review," "bulletin," "research"

Vocabulary

Easy to read

Formal language, jargon

 

 

 

Page Author

Profile ImageRebecca Graff
Contact Info:
Fondren Library Center
FLC East, Room 104
214.768.3656
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Subjects:
Humanities Librarian

 
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