Find Scholarly Articles

Peer Review is a process that journals use to ensure the articles they publish represent the best scholarship currently available. When an article is submitted to a peer reviewed journal, the editors send it out to other scholars in the same field (the author's peers) to get their opinion on the quality of the scholarship, its relevance to the field, its appropriateness for the journal, etc.

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Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals: How to Tell the Difference

A periodical is any publication that is published multiple times (periodically). Periodicals include materials such as popular magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers. Often popular periodicals are called magazines and scholarly periodicals are called journals.

Here are some guidelines to help you distinguish between the three major kinds of periodicals found in college libraries.

	Scholarly	Popular	Trade
Example Cover
Authors	Scholars, researchers Credentials and affiliations are given	Journalists, staff writers Credentials are rarely given	Staff writers, industry specialists, or vendor representatives.
Content	Original research, the results of a study, or a review of scholarly research. Follows scholarly format: abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, bibliography	Informative, entertaining, secondary information. No specific format is followed.	Articles about a certain business or industry
References	List of references or bibliography included. In-text citations, footnotes are provided	References generally are not provided	Sometimes provides references
Editors	Editors are experts in the field. Their affiliations are given	Editors are staff members, journalists, not scholars	Professional editors.
Audience	Other scholars, researchers, students	General public	Members of a specific business, industry, or organization
Appearance	Sober, serious. May include charts, graphs, statistics	Attractive, eye-catching, with photographs and illustrations.	Glossy paper. Pictures and illustrations in color.
Length	Lengthy	Shorter. Typically 1-5 pages.	Shorter. Typically 1-5 pages.
Examples	Journal of Food Science and Technology; American Historical Review	Time; Bon Appetit	Food Management; Pharmacy Times

Source: College of Alameda Library and NCSU Library