Library Guide to Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Publications

---

Depending on the purpose of your research paper or project, it may be necessary to distinguish between scholarly, trade, and popular sources. Use the following guidelines to identify these types of publications.

	Scholarly Journals	Trade Magazines	Popular Magazines
Format/ Structure	Dense text, serious appearance	Some photographs and advertising	Many illustrations and advertisements, attractive in appearance
Authorship	Author's credentials are established (e.g., institutional affiliation, degrees earned, etc.)	Authors are active professionals in the field	Authors may not have special qualifications
Audience/ Language	Subject-specific language or jargon	Technical language for professionals	Everyday language accessible to a general readership
Content	In depth analysis or extensive overview of a topic	Practical how-to articles and news about the field, products, and advancements	Clear and simple discussions of news, entertainment, or other subjects of popular interest
Purpose	Presentation of research	Share solutions and developments	Provide short, entertaining, or newsy articles
Publisher	An organization, institution, or association	Varies	A commercial publisher
Editor/ Reviewer	Submissions are reviewed by experts in the field	Submissions are reviewed by the publication's editors	Submissions are reviewed by publication's editors or purchased in advance
Credits	Sources are cited in footnotes or bibliography	Varies	Sources sometimes are cited for news articles
Pagination	Continuous pagination	Each issue paged separately	Varies
Examples	Journal of Marketing Research, Child Development, Science Fiction Studies	Publishers Weekly, Advertising Age	Newsweek, Vanity Fair, U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic, Atlantic Monthly

NOTE: You can use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory to determine if a particular publication is scholarly or not.

• Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (Bowker) Current edition.     Save to del.icio.us
  Provides information on consumer and trade magazines, academic and scholarly publications, monographic series, newsletters, newspapers, electronic publications, 'zines, and many other types of serial publications and services published throughout the world on all subjects.

---

For further assistance, please contact the
Miller Nichols Library Reference Desk at (816) 235-1534.

Created and maintained by Carrie Donovan