Popular or Scholarly

 

Magazines and Journals are called periodicals because they are issued on a regular or "periodic" basis. Periodicals are usually separated into two major groups: popular and scholarly. If you are able to recognize the differences between a popular and scholarly source, you can focus your research to retrieve only the type of information you need. The following pages will illustrate some of the differences between the two.

 

Popular magazines like People, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone are probably not the best sources to use to find articles for research.

Other magazines -- such as Harpers, Scientific American and The New Republic -- might be good sources of information for your paper. They are geared towards readers who, although not experts, are knowledgeable about the issues presented. Articles in these sources are generally more in-depth but still fairly easy to understand.

If your professor says you need to find scholarly information for your paper, you should choose a journal rather than a magazine. Journals are geared toward experts and researchers in the academic or professional community. An editorial board of respected scholars reviews all articles submitted to a journal. They decide if the article provides a noteworthy contribution to the field and should be published.

 

Here are two sample citations of a popular magazine and a journal

Magazine Article:

Beiser, Vince. "The cyber snoops: how Internet gumshoes breach personal privacy." Maclean's 110:25 (June 23, 1997) p42.

Journal Article:

McElroy, D. and Turban, E. "Using smart cards in electronic commerce." International Journal of Information Management. 18:1 (February 1998) p61-72.