Iowa State University Library Guides! - Scholarly or Popular? Information Literacy Guide

Scholarly Journals & Popular Magazines: Information Literacy Guide

For some assignments, your instructor may require you to locate information in scholarly research journals, but how can you easily know the differences between a scholarly journal and a popular magazine? This sort of basic evaluation is a necessary part of the research process, and a means for you to sharpen your critical thinking skills. Some of the ways that a research journal typically differs from a popular magazine are:

AUTHORITY Scholarly journal articles will indicate authors and their academic credentials; popular magazines may not always list the author.	research articles list authors clearly and prominently, and include author credentials (degrees, positions, and so on) research article authors are most often clearly affiliated with an academic or research institution an address is provided for readers to contact the author at his or her institution or academic department popular magazine articles are often unsigned, rarely indicate author credentials, and almost never include a specific address for contacting the author
CITATION Scholarly journal articles will include footnotes, endnotes, bibliographies, or reference lists; popular magazine articles very rarely do this.	scholarly journal articles indicate sources of information that were used, read, or cited in the article scholarly journal articles almost always include footnotes or endnotes popular magazine articles may attribute sources in a more indirect or less formal manner, or not at all
CONTENT Scholarly journal articles focus on research; popular magazines focus on current events & topics of general interest, and include lots of ads for consumer products.	scholarly articles go beyond "general interest," and are written for experts in the field - those who already know quite a bit about the topic and its development the writing style of scholarly articles may be technical and detailed, and use specialized vocabulary familiar to subject experts in that research discipline scholarly research articles are often long and complex scholarly publications does not include a lot of advertisements for consumer products; ads are limited to scholarly or academic products and services popular articles usually focus on entertainment and news or general awareness on an issue; writing style is usually direct and easy to understand
PEER REVIEW Scholarly journal articles are reviewed and fully critiqued by subject experts for research accuracy & importance before being published; popular magazines are not as rigorous.	scholarly journals prominently list their editors or editorial board, and the academic or institutional affiliations of those people scholarly publications will often specifically label themselves as a "peer reviewed" journal - this means scholarly subject experts review and critique each article submission before it's accepted for publication scholarly journals often specify a certain style guide or other rules to follow for those wanting to submit a paper scholarly journals are often published by an academic institution or scholarly association popular magazines rarely highlight or comment on their editorial review process
POINT OF SALE Where you find publications for sale is a clue. It may be difficult to locate scholarly journals at all outside of research libraries; popular magazines are usually much easier to find.	some scholarly journals may be found for sale in larger academic bookstores; otherwise, they are typically found in research library collections popular magazines may be found in many places, including discount stores, supermarkets, newsstands, bookstores, and elsewhere public libraries often collect a great variety of popular magazines, but rarely collect many scholarly research journals
PUBLICATION FREQUENCY Scholarly journals are usually published two or four times a year; popular magazines may be published daily, weekly, or monthly.	popular magazines are typically published very frequently, as often as weekly or monthly - remember that their purpose is to entertain and provide news & general awareness on topics of interest scholarly journals are typically released only a few times per year - remember that the purpose of scholarly journals is to promote research and learning in specialized scholarly disciplines. the peer-review editorial process adds to the publication timeline of scholarly journals and the articles they publish - it takes longer to critique and review submitted articles before they are published
VISUAL APPEAL Visual layout and design of scholarly journals focus most often on text, graphs, charts, and tables; popular magazines may focus on glossy color photographs of people, products, and places.	visual appeal is a strong hint about the audience the publication seeks and the purpose of the publication scholarly journals for most fields (except fields such as art and design) tend to be text-based front covers of scholarly journals often list contents, authors, or may feature a simple design repeated for each issue; contents are listed to attract intellectual / scholarly research interest popular magazines may feature photographs of celebrities or other flashy, glossy front covers; contents may be described in a commercial or exaggerated manner meant to attract attention and promote sales