As a college student advancing through your coursework, you will be increasingly expected to obtain research from scholarly, rather than popular sources. While popular magazines can provide useful information on many topics, they are usually not sufficient to support papers in the more advanced or specialized courses. Even when preparing papers for general classes, you will be able to support your conclusions more soundly by choosing scholarly periodicals and books as information sources as much as possible.

Therefore, it is important to understand the difference between popular periodicals (magazines) and scholarly periodicals (journals). It is also useful to recognize two other types of periodicals -- professional and trade.

Popular Periodicals

• Popular periodicals, or magazines, are generally available at newsstands and intended for the general public. There are magazines devoted to any of hundreds of hobbies or special interests, as well as to news, current events, the arts, or sciences.
  
  
• Magazines are good sources of information, especially current information, and aimed at the general, educated, or lay reader. Magazines are often slickly produced--making use of graphics, illustrations, and color photographs for a pleasing look.
  
  
• Magazine articles generally report on and summarize research rather than present primary research on their own.
  
  
• Magazines typically are published weekly or monthly.
  
  
• The University of Akron Libraries subscribe to many important magazines, but not as many magazines as would a public library.
  
  
  • Here are some examples of Popular Periodicals or Magazines:
    
    
    • American Hiker
    • Sports Illustrated
    • Newsweek
    • U.S. News & World Report
    • Glamour
    • Omni
    • Rolling Stone
    • People Weekly
    • Datamation
    • Jet
    • Psychology Today
    • Better Homes and Gardens
    • Ladies Home Journal

Scholarly Journals

• Scholarly journals exist to further primary research, most often in specific academic disciplines.
  
  
• Articles in journals tend to contain footnotes and bibliographies, and point to and build upon previous studies.
  
  
• Journal articles usually report on the results of the authors' experiments, studies, or literature reviews.
  
  
• Journals are typically published quarterly.
  
  
• Journals are the type of periodical most often found in The University of Akron Libraries to directly support the coursework and research done at the University.
  
  
  • Here are some examples of Scholarly Journals:
    
    
    • Information Sciences
    • The Hemingway Review
    • Journal of Organic Chemistry
    • Journal of Urban Affairs
    • Journal of Social Issues
    • Social Problems
    • Communication Quarterly
    • Quarterly Review of Business and Economics
    • Comparative Education Review
    • Reading Research Quarterly
    • Journal of Film and Video
    • Journal of Academic Librarianship
    • Journal of Clinical Child Psychology

Professional Journals

• Professional journals report on the concerns, issues, research, and news of their respective professions. While not exactly scholarly journals, professional journals may contain primary research.
  
  
  • Here are some examples of professional journals:
    
    
    • Family Law Quarterly
    • American Libraries
    • American Psychologist
    • The CPA Journal

Trade Publications

• Trade publications are periodicals devoted to the practical concerns and issues surrounding various industries. Readership includes people involved directly in those industries as well as students researching the industries.
  
  
• Trade publications are good sources of information about trends, new products, and industrial issues and law.
  
  
  • Here are some examples of trade publications:
    
    
    • Restaurant Business
    • Meat Processing
    • Distribution
    • Chilton's Automotive Industries
    • Cargo Systems International

Are Scholarly Sources on the Web?

While it is true that more and more peer-reviewed articles are being placed on the Internet, and that scholarly journals are increasingly turning to electronic publication, the great body of scholarly publication is still not available freely on the Internet. By far, the most comprehensive access to scholarly journals remains through the databases and in the print and electronic journal collections provided by your library.

When browsing the Web for scholarly sources, you will get the best results by using Google Scholar [if off campus be sure to connect to the Web via UA Virtual Private Network (VPN) to have full-text access to many of the citations supplied by Google Scholar].