TOPIC: How to Identify Scholarly Sources: Journals & Periodicals

News / Opinion or
Trade / Industry periodicals

• Has serious look
• Lots of text
• Will contain tables, graphs and charts, but few photos
• Plain cover, plain paper, mostly black / white graphics
• Page numbering is consecutive throughout each volume
• Few, if any pictures, and fewer still in color 

• Cover depicts industrial setting or news item
• Has glossy paper, pictures and illustrations in color
• Each issue starts with page 1
• Trade magazines will have industry trends, new products or techniques, and organizational news
• Illustrated, with colorful graphs and photos

• Eye-catching cover, glossy paper
• Pictures and illustrations in color
• Each issue starts with page 1
• Secondary discussion of information from other sources
• May include personal narrative or opinion, general information
• Heavily illustrated, many photographs

• Researchers, scholars, experts, specialists
• Author's credentials and academic affiliation listed
• Frequently has co-authors

• Industry practitioners, insiders
• Journalists familiar with an industry
• In opinion and news, there are staff writers, scholars, and free-lance writers
• Author credentials sometimes provided

• Journalists, staff-writers, freelance authors 
• Rarely author's credentials or affiliation
• Often no author provided

• Lengthy and complex
• Focused on in-depth analysis of specific topic

• Short to medium length,
• Focused on specific topic in field or area

• Short to medium length
• Focused on broader coverage, overview

• More formal and structured
• Articles have distinct sections with headings: abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, works cited. 

• Journalistic format with a one-sentence "lead" that establishes the story, a few paragraphs that reiterate the story and add some detail, and a body that adds significantly more detail.
• Does not follow a formal structure

• No structure to articles, evidence drawn from personal experience or common knowledge
• Many articles might read like a story and will not present evidence or a conclusion

• A highly specialized vocabulary
• Uses the jargon of the field for scholarly readers
• Writing is complex, formal, objective

• Plain English, but many references to names of businesses, executives, products, and processes
• Trade magazines may include some technical language
• Language appropriate for an educated readership and assumes a certain level of specialized knowledge

• Composed of normal, non-technical vocabulary that's easy to understand
• Lowest reading level possible (usually 3rd grade)

Documentation of sources -

Cited Sources

• Formal citations within the article (sometimes footnotes)
• Always a bibliography (or works cited) of sources used by the author(s)

• Citations take a general form ("experts say") or name people and their occupation and workplace
• Sometimes a bibliography, but they are not expected

• Rarely formally cite any sources
• No bibliography, but sometimes contact information

• None, or very minimal
• If any, they are located in one section
• If any, they are for books, journals, conferences

• More advertisements, but not for retail: usually for business-to-business services and products
• Many ads for products and services related to a particular trade or industry

• Numerous, often colorful advertisements for retail products 
• Many ads for general consumer products and services

• Provides well-sourced technical information to researchers and expert practitioners
• To inform, report, or make available original research or experimentation in a specific field or discipline and among experts in a field of research
• Share expertise

• Provides practical business and industry news and information to workplace professionals
• Provides commentary on political or social issues, may contain speeches or interviews

• Designed to entertain or persuade readers with a variety of general interest topics in broad subject fields
• Geared to sell products and services through advertising

• Scholars, researchers, students, experts
• Professionals in a particular field

• Industry practitioners, investors, business leaders, professionals in a field
• General interested public

• General readers, lay-people, non-experts

• Articles are usually reviewed and critically evaluated by a board of experts in the field (refereed)
• University presses, professional associations / societies, educational institutions

• Industry or trade associations will publish their periodicals and they are edited by the publication's editors
• News and opinion periodicals are produced by a commercial publisher for profit.  They are edited by staff editors

• Commercial publishers and staff editors
• Editors may employ and pay for authors to write on specific topics

Why Use it?

Use & Value

• Your professor requires it
• You want the most objective, rationally argued, evidence-supported information
• Your topic is sufficiently narrow that you can benefit from similarly narrowly-focused articles
• It is time to deepen your engagement with your major field
• Provides original research which may be theoretical, experimental or applied
• In depth analysis of topic
• Substantial book reviews

• To understand practical, business perspectives on a concept (i.e. how research is applied)
• To get industry-insider information not available in general news sources, current events in a particular field
• To learn background information on a topic
• To learn about trends in markets and industries, provides statistics and complex data
• In news & opinion periodicals, there will be commentary and viewpoints and BIAS
• News magazines sometimes produce speeches and interviews (first hand accounts)

• Primary source for popular culture
• Biography and interviews of contemporary figures
• To get information on currently breaking stories not available in other source types
• First hand accounts and viewpoints
• Some book reviews
• To understand the broad appeal of or conventional perspectives on a topic

Example
Articles