How can I tell a popular periodical article from a scholarly journal article?
Basically Popular/general sources are written by professionals or laypeople for general public audiences (overall general public, parents, students, etc.). Scholarly/specific sources are written by professionals in a field for professionals in the field. Important: scholarly journals, like popular magazines, have different kinds of articles in them (editorials, feature articles, notes, updates, book reviews, etc.). Our reference librarians tell students in campus library orientation that few scholarly journal articles are less than 10 pages in length. A scholarly journal article is something like a “feature” article–a main article in the publication. Their length is actually decreasing a bit so in some fields such (esp. sciences) 6-8 page scholarly journal articles are becoming more common. More often than not, however, even in these fields briefer articles in journals fit one of the other article types (editorial, book review, update, etc.) The briefer ones belong in the “other” sect
Related Questions
- You can use the librarys online article databases to search for scholarly articles on just about every subject. Want a good place to start?
- What is the difference between scholarly and popular magazines, journals, periodicals, etc.?
- How can I tell a popular periodical article from a scholarly journal article?
