|
Conclusion
Here's a quick summary of
how to tell whether you are about to use a scholarly
journal or a
popular magazine in your research.
Remember that these are indications of
whether an article comes from a
scholarly journal or a popular magazine.
Even if you are using an electronic database to find your articles
and don't see any
advertisements or a flashy cover, you can still use
these clues. For example, look at the
article's length, author's
qualifications, language of the article (meant for experts
or a general
audience), whether there is a bibliography, article structure to tell if
it is
scholarly or popular.
Scholarly Journal
|
|
Popular
Magazine
|
experts/professionals
in
the subject area |
Audience |
for anybody interested
in
the subject area |
experts/professionals
in
the subject area |
Authors |
staff writers working
for the magazine or freelance journalists selling their articles |
articles are checked
by peers
(other experts in the field) before
being published |
Peer reviewed |
articles are checked
by magazine editors but not by other writers or experts in the field |
tend to be long to
very long
(articles over 10 pages
long are usual) |
Article length |
tend to be short
(usually 1-6 pages); a few are a little longer |
|
always have
bibliographies; show what research the authors did in preparing the
article |
Bibliographies |
almost never have
bibliographies;
may have suggested readings |
|
Usually plain in
appearance |
Appearance |
Flashy, tries to catch
the eye |
|
none or very little
advertising |
Advertising |
lots of advertising |
structured articles
following
a regular format |
Article Structure |
articles not
structured, can follow
pretty much any format |
Gender in medicine - an issue for women only? A survey of physician
teachers' gender attitudes
from the
International Journal for Equity in Health
|
Examples of Articles |
Burnout: new images from Hubble preview the death of our sun: swift,
colorful, and surprisingly tempestuous
from Discover Magazine |
Of
course, for some things, the only clue you need is the cover!!!
|
