Scholarly & Popular Articles Objective: Students will be able to differentiate between scholarly and popular articles.

Information can either be… Scholarly or Popular

When researching a topic, you may be asked to find both scholarly and popular articles. These articles will be found in either scholarly journals or popular magazines depending on the type of information you are looking for.

Scholarly usually refers to journals such as Image taken from http://pubs.acs.org/ action/showLargeCover?issue=33036239 Image taken from http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/ 295/15/1860.full

Scholarly journal articles have the following characteristics: They are written by someone who is an expert or has done research on the subject They are written for scholars They do not have many pictures, but may include tables and graphs They often include abstract and citation information References or a bibliography are usually included at the end of the article.

Popular usually refers to magazines such as Image taken from http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101110131,00.html Image taken from http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/ 2010/4/4/saupload_040717_cover.jpg

Popular magazine articles have the following characteristics: Written for the general public Written by a journalist or reporter Contain extensive advertising, graphics, and photographs Published daily, weekly, or monthly Rarely include references or citations Include current events, trends, opinions and topics of popular interest

Comparing Scholarly Journal & Popular Magazine Articles Scholarly Journal Articles Popular Magazine Articles Written FOR scholars in a specific subject area Written FOR general public Written BY an expert or researcher; i.e. an artist, historian, doctor, educator Written BY a journalist, celebrity, general person Very little advertising; graphics specialized, if any Many advertisements and photographs Reading level is advanced; use specialized vocabulary Reading level is very basic for general population Published quarterly or bi-monthly, usually Published weekly or monthly

Comparing Scholarly Journals & Popular Magazines—cont. Scholarly Journal Articles Popular Magazine Articles Include references to sources, bibliographies, full citations (at end of article) Rarely include references, bibliographies, or citations Indexed in specialized databases such as ERIC (education articles) Indexed in general databases such as Reader’s Guide or SIRS Discuss specific topics in a scholarly subject Include current events, trends, opinions and popular interest topics Often include an abstract or brief summary of the article to inform the reader Often include inviting title and subtitles to encourage reading the article Approved for publication by a group of specialists in the same field of interest; this is called “peer reviewed” Approved for publication by the magazine’s editors.

“Peer Reviewed” A peer reviewed article has been reviewed for publication by a group of experts. These experts are called “peers” and are highly specialized professionals or scholars in that field of expertise. Many articles in scholarly journals, but not all, have been peer reviewed.

You can access many popular and scholarly articles through the databases, accessible through the library, such as SIRS and EBSCO.

It is possible to limit to scholarly/peer-reviewed journals in some databases, but keep in mind that not all of the articles found using this limiter are scholarly and/or peer-reviewed.

Summing Up Both scholarly and popular articles can be used in research, but be aware of the characteristics and quality of each. Generally speaking, it is possible to write a very good paper with nothing but scholarly articles and it is impossible to write a strong paper with nothing but popular literature; hence, one category is clearly better for students than the other!