Popular vs. Professional

If your professor says you need to find scholarly information for your paper, you may what him/her to clarify. Ask if you can use any professional journal article or if you must use scholarly journal articles. An editorial board of respected scholars reviews all articles submitted to a scholarly journal. They decide if the article provides a noteworthy contribution to the field and should be published. Bibliographies are found in scholarly journals, sometimes in technical/trade journals, but rarely in popular magazines.

Each article in scholarly journals are peer-reviewed (or refereed) for quality by other scholars (an editorial board) in the field. This quality review process takes time (generally 6-12 months). In general, popular articles are only reviewed by an editor, which usually takes a brief amount of time.

Scholarly journals provide long, in-depth articles, cover case studies, report original (or primary) research and contain bibliographies (lists of works cited).

Scholarly articles which report primary research or empirial research (that is, the author is making the first published report of the results of his or her own research study) carry more weight as evidence than do articles which do not.

Technical/trade journals provide information (news and current issues in the profession) to help a professional do his/her job better. Also, their tone is less formal compared to scholarly journals.

WARNING: You will notice that online articles do not provide the visual clues (color, photographs, ads, periodical cover etc.) that are apparent in print periodicals . Without the visual clues, it is more difficult to distinguish professional from popular periodicals (see examples below). Content is the key.

Popular magazines like People, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone are probably not the best sources to use to find articles for research because they only cover topics in general (not in-depth research). Magazines -- such as Harpers, Scientific American and The New Republic -- are good sources of information for your paper. They are geared towards readers who, although not experts, are knowledgeable about the issues presented. Articles in these sources are generally more in-depth but still fairly easy to understand. Ask your professor if these types of magazines are acceptable.

 

EXAMPLES (in MLA format)

Popular Magazine Article
McClure, Stuart and Joel Scambray. "Internet privacy shows troubling prospects; constant erosion leads to lots of exposed data." Infoworld 22:25 (June 19, 2000) 54. Academic Search Premier. Dakota State U Lib., Madison. 29 July 2004 <http://search.epnet.com>.

Technical/Trade Journal Article
McMahon, Matt. "Mid-Michigan consortium supplies districts with 'Smart' Web filtering solution." Technological Horizons In Education 3:10 (May 2003) 46-47. Academic Search Premier. Dakota State U Lib., Madison. 29 July 2004 <http://search.epnet.com>.

Scholarly Journal Article
Small, Ruth V., et al. "Information seeking for instructional planning: An exploratory study." Journal of Research in Computing Education 31:2 (Winter 1998) 204-219. Academic Search Premier. Dakota State U Lib., Madison. 29 July 2004 <http://search.epnet.com>.

NOTE: You will need your Library ID (21578000 ...) and password (your last name) to view these articles.