It is
important to understand the differences between popular magazines and scholarly
journals. You may be required to use
scholarly journals to gather information for your papers. While popular magazines can be useful in
providing information on a variety of
topics,
they may not be sufficient for supporting papers in the more specialized or
advanced courses. Scholarly journals are
published to disseminate research and information in a particular field.
Popular magazines introduce a topic but do not cover it in-depth.
SCHOLARLY JOURNALS:
·
The articles are peer reviewed or refereed by a board of experts in the
field. (See back for more
information)
·
Abstracts, summaries or the original research will be included in the
article.
·
Written for a narrow audience such as the professional, professor, or
student in a specific
field of study.
·
Articles are written by professionals or experts in the field.
·
The article usually provides the author's qualifications.
·
A bibliography or citation to other articles will usually be present.
·
There may be many joint authors.
·
Language may be specific to the subject area and not always understood
by the general public.
EXAMPLES OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS:
American Journal of Nursing
American
Journal of Sociology
Nature
POPULAR MAGAZINES:
·
Articles are not peer reviewed or refereed. (See back of sheet for more information)
· Written for general
public.
·
Articles are written by professional writers or journalists or the name
of the author is not
provided.
·
If the author is indicated, only the name is provided with no additional
information on the
author's
qualifications.
·
Information about original research may be provided but not published.
·
Usually there is no bibliography provided.
·
Are published more frequently such as weekly as
opposed to quarterly.
·
Are published for-profit by commercial publishers.
·
Language is familiar to the general public and less technical.
EXAMPLES OF POPULAR MAGAZINES:
Hospitals & Health Networks
Jet
Newsweek
PEERED REVIEWED
ARTICLES (ALSO CALLED REFEREED)
When an author
submits an article to a peer reviewed journal, the editors send it to several
experts in the field for comment
before
agreeing to publish the article. Often, the
article will be rejected or a lengthy revision process will be necessary before
the
article can be accepted. This process
helps ensure the final quality of the published material.
How to decide
whether a journal is peer reviewed:
· Check the journal
Each year the
journal publishes an Instructions to Authors section
which tells whether a peer review process is used to decide
whether
a publication will be accepted. Usually,
journals which have an editorial board are peer reviewed. Often, the title
page
or the following page will list the editorial board and may indicate which
issue contains the Instructions to Authors section.
· Check Ulrich's
Ulrich's International Periodical
Directory in the Takoma Park Reference Collection (Z 6941.U5) contains a
section
called
Refereed Journals. Check alphabetically
for the title of the journal in that section.
CITING POPULAR AND
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES:
When you paraphrase or quote from an author in your paper, you
must credit the source. For more
information on how
to cite popular or scholarly articles, use the following
materials:
· Handouts on APA
and MLA styles are located across from the reference desk.
· American
Psychological Association. Publication
Manual of the American Psychological
Association.
· Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
Association. (Available at the reference desk.)
Need more help? Call or ask at the Reference Desk!
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© 2004 Montgomery
College Libraries
Last Revised: August/25/2004 [ks]