Periodical Articles:
A Guide to Evaluating, Obtaining, 
and Citing Periodical Articles

 

Scholarly Journals or Popular Magazines


Depending upon your assignment, part of evaluating articles on your topic may consist of determining whether they are from scholarly journals or popular magazines.  Professors sometimes require that their students use only scholarly journal articles, for example.  When trying to decide whether the publication containing your article is a scholarly journal or a popular magazine, it helps to consider the publication as unit. [Sometimes this may mean finding a paper copy of an issue of the publication containing the article which you found in a full-text database.]  Think about the following criteria.

Characteristic Features   Scholarly/Research Journals   Popular Magazines  

Appearance

examine the cover of the publication and the pages within it  

  • Generally plain paper

  • Black and white  illustrations – largely graphs, tables, diagrams

  • No ads, or a few ads for books, journals, conferences  

  • Often smaller than 8 1/2 x 11 in size  

  • Paper often glossy

  • Color photographs as illustrations

  • Color ads for everyday products (cars, makeup, household gadgets)

  • The publications you see in dentists' or doctors' offices  

Authorship  

look for the author's name and information about the author at the beginning or end of the article  

  • Academics and professionals: people with advanced degrees (Masters or Doctorates) in the field

  • Authors not paid for their work; some pay "page charges" to get work published  

  • Professional writers: people who may not have any background in the subject

  • Journalists, reporters – people paid by the publication for what they write  

Editors

look for a listing of those on the editorial board (and their qualifications) on a page near the front of the publication  

  •  Editors expert in the same fields as the authors

  • Articles reviewed by editors and peer reviewers prior to publication

  •  Editors, reviewers check content as well as format, style  

  •  Editors not expert in the subject field of the article; generally journalists and professional writers

  • Some employ fact-checkers to check content

  •  Most editing is for format, style  

Format/ Structure

check the headings within each article  

Articles include an abstract, review of the literature, statement of the problem, methodology, findings, conclusions, endnotes or bibliography  

  • Articles often open with some experiences "real" people have had with the issues

  • Articles then give at least two different "expert" viewpoints on the subject   

Sources

look for footnotes at the bottom of pages and endnotes or bibliographies at the end of articles  

  • Sources are primarily texts, not people

  • Sources often quoted directly

  •  Lots of sources

  • Sources cited completely in footnotes, endnotes, bibliography  

  • Sources are generally people

  •  Texts not quoted directly

  • Sources seldom or never cited completely  

 

Audience/Language

read the opening paragraph(s) of the article  

  •  Written for specialists in the field

  • Lots of technical/ professional jargon

  • Not easily understood by non-adults, people who haven't studied the topic  

  •  Written so that anyone interested in the topic can understand it

  • Accessible to non-adult readers (junior high or high school students)

Purpose

look at the types of information articles give  

Articles advance scholarship in a field

 Publication a venue for scholars sharing research  

Articles inform the "general public"

 Publication makes profits for corporate owners – generally by sale of ads  

Frequency

look for issue numbers on the cover or spine  

 Publication may appear as few as 2 or 4 times a year; generally no more than 12 times a year    Publications appear fairly frequently – maybe even weekly  
Length Articles fairly long (10-30 pages) but on narrow topics   Articles usually short (1-10 pages) but on broad topics  
Useful For  

  • Report on experiments and research studies

  • Give lengthier book reviews, reviews of scholarly books  

Shows what the general public is interested in, is being told about a topic  
Examples

  • Physical Review A

  •  Behavioral and Brain Sciences

  • Journal of American Studies

  • Management Accounting Research  

  • Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report

  • Sports Illustrated

  • Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, etc.

  • Gourmet  

 

Self-Test

A Question:
Megan has found an article in a periodical. The article itself does not include its author's qualifications or credit its sources. The periodical has lots of glossy ads and no listing of its editors. What has Megan found, a scholarly journal or a popular magazine?  

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Page created by: Kate Manuel.
Last update: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 .