College Libraries: Evaluating Information Sources: Source Types

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

When doing research, you'll come across three main types of periodicals: scholarly journals, trade publications, and popular magazines.

Scholarly journals are aimed at academic audiences, and generally contain articles presenting original research written by professors, scholars, or researchers. Many (although not all) scholarly journals are peer reviewed.
Trade publications are focused on a specific industry, such as education, nursing, or finance, and share news, trends, and opinion pieces about just that industry. They generally do not include new research, nor are they generally peer reviewed.
Popular magazines are aimed at a general audience and present information intended to either inform, entertain, or persuade. They typically have professional editorial and writing staffs, do not present new research, and are not peer reviewed.

The following table presents a more detailed breakdown of what each periodical type entails:

	Popular Magazine	Trade Publication	Academic/Scholarly Journal
Intended Audience	general public	professionals in the field	researchers/academics/graduate students
Authors	on-staff professional journalists; free-lance journalists	people working in the field; free-lance journalists	academics/researchers in the field
Editors	staff editors; no peer review	staff editors; may be reviewed by industry professionals	journal editors; may include peer review by other scholars in the field
Goal/Purpose	provide general information or entertain	provide practical information to people in the field	share or present original research
Type of Research	usually secondary reporting; some original research on general public concerns	usually secondary reporting of research; may include some original research	mostly original research
Content	current events, general interest, reporting the findings of others	current news, trends & products within a specific industry	research results, reviews of research in a specific field; book reviews
Citations/ References	may mention sources in text, but usually no formal citations	may have a short bibliography of references	all original articles contain bibliographies, footnotes, endnotes and/or works cited
Writing Style/ Vocabulary	general language; non-technical; informal writing style	technical terminology specific to the field	complex & technical terminology specific to the field; formal writing style
Graphics/ Appearance	eye-catching & attractive; glossy pages; colorful images used for visual impact	eye-catching & attractive; glossy pages; moderately colorful images	plain-looking; usually lack images; use graphs/charts to illustrate concepts
Advertisements	many glossy, colorful ads	ads are usually industry-specific	minimal ads; may promote upcoming conferences or scholarly products (e.g. books); very few commercial ads
Examples	Time National Geographic Vogue	Advertising Age Higher Education Digest Aviation Week & Space Technology	Journal of American History Journal of Behavioral Education New York State Journal of Medicine

Evaluating Information Sources: Source Types

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

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