Journals—Scholarly or Popular?


CRITERIA	SCHOLARLY JOURNALS	PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS	SUBSTANTIAL NON-SPECIALIST	POPULAR MAGAZINES
FORMAT & GRAPHICS	grave, serious formats; graphs and charts; seldom glossy pages or pictures	similar to Substantial Non-specialist	attractive in appearance; include photographs, illustrations, and graphics to enhance the publication	slick and glossy with an attractive format; contain photographs, illustrations, and drawings to enhance their appeal
*SOURCES	cite sources with footnotes and/or bibliographies	similar to Substantial Non-specialist	occasionally cite sources	rarely cite any sources; original sources can be obscure
AUTHORS & AUDIENCE	written by and for scholars or researchers	written by professionals in the field	written for an educated, general audience by the magazine's staff, scholars, or free-lance writers	written by the publication's staff or free-lance writers for a broad-based audience
*LANGUAGE	terminology, jargon, and the language of the discipline covered; the reader is assumed to have a similar specialized background	similar to Scholarly Journals	language appropriate for an educated readership; they do not emphasize a specialty but do assume a certain level of education	simple language in order to meet a minimum education level; short articles
*PURPOSE	to inform, report or make available original research or experimentation to the scholarly world	to inform members of a professional organization about the organization's activities or to share practical information for practitioners in the field	to provide general information to a wide, interested audience	to entertain, provide hobby information, or persuade
*PUBLISHERS	generally published by a professional organization	similar to Scholarly Journals	generally published by commercial enterprises for profit	published for profit
ADVERTISING	contain selective advertising	selective advertising of products useful to practitioners in the field	carry advertising	contain extensive advertising
EXAMPLES	APPLIED NURSING RESEARCH CHILDHOOD EDUCATION HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY MODERN FICTION STUDIES	COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM MATHEMATICS IN SCHOOL PARKS & RECREATION PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY SCIENCE AND CHILDREN	ATLANTIC MONTHLY FORTUNE NEW YORKER SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN UTNE READER	BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS GLAMOUR PEOPLE WEEKLY READER'S DIGEST SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

*=criteria for evaluating electronic publications and fulltext articles

Quick Check

Question 4 (show/hide)

Value: 1

This content has been republished with permission from Martha Johansen, author of the fabulous OWLS Tutorial at Humboldt State University Library's Information Literacy Program.

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