Periodicals are sources that are published on a regular basis. Magazines, trade journals, and academic journals are types of periodicals.
Periodicals are published more frequently than books and will have more up-to-date information. Magazines or popular periodicals are usually on a shorter publication schedule than journals or scholarly periodicals which have an extensive review process.
Articles in periodicals tend to be specific while books typically offer a broader treatment of a topic.
Below are some identifying features of popular and scholarly periodicals. Note that sources occur on a popular/scholarly continuum. Some sources are clearly popular or scholarly while others have mixed features. Determining a source's popular or scholarly orientation will help you evaluate its appropriateness for your research purpose. For example, using some popular sources may work for an introductory undergraduate project, while all scholarly sources may be required for more advanced work, especially in a student's major field of study.
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Popular Periodicals--Magazines |
Scholarly Periodicals---Journals |
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Written by journalists |
Written by experts in their field |
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Reviewed by an editorial staff |
Often reviewed by peers within the discipline |
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Purpose to inform, persuade, or entertain |
Purpose to present research findings, in-depth studies |
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General audience |
More educated or professional audience |
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Language aimed at a general audience |
May use vocabulary specific to the field |
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Tone varies (serious, humorous, satirical, etc.) |
Tone serious |
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No bibliography or works cited |
Bibliography or works cited for articles |
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Contain many photographs, illustrations, drawings |
Few graphics, many charts and graphs |
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Extensive advertising |
Selective advertising |
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Articles usually short (1-5 pages) |
Articles usually longer |
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Examples: Time, Cosmopolitan, New Republic |
Examples: International Journal of Psychology, Comparative Literature, The Journal of Asian Studies |
Types of unhelpful articles
Scholarly journals have more than one type of article. They also have some fun stuff similar to magazines that will not help you such as letters to the editor,
Wow! That’s quite a list. Luckily, there is one clue that will eliminate most of these: thenumber of pages. If an article is2 pages or less, it is very unlikely to be a scholarly peer-reviewed academic article.
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Trade Journals provide practical information for professionals to help them keep up-to-date in their field.
Examples of trade journals:
This short video (3:10) from Vanderbilt University will help you differentiate between popular and scholarly sources.
Certain journals publish peer-reviewed articles. Before the editors of the journal publish an article they send the article out to scholars in the subject area for review. The scholars examine the article to make sure it reflects solid research in the field. If these reviewers have reservations about the article the journal may not publish the article or may require the author to make changes. This thorough editorial process results in highly-regarded scholarship.
Note that the terms refereed and vetted are also used to describe articles that have undergone this process
Learn about the peer review process with this video from North Carolina State University Libraries.
Some databases have a peer-reviewed limiter that will limit your results to articles from peer-reviewed journals. Caution: Make sure your source is a research article; you may retrieve other types of articles, such as editorials, that are not peer-reviewed.
A journal's Web site will often indicate if publication is peer-reviewed.
Use UlrichWeb.com, a database available from Briggs Library. Enter the journal's name in the search field. You'll see an icon resembling a referee's jersey by peer-reviewed or refereed publications.