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Alice E. Chatlos Library of Davis College

Periodicals: Scholarly, Trade & Popular

Periodicals are documents that are published by organizations at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.).  There are three types of periodicals: popular, trade, and scholarly. 

What's the difference?

Popular magazines usually have a bright cover with many illustrations and advertisements.  They are designed to appeal to a broad segment of the population, or at least a large population with a common interest, like hunting (Field & Stream), a certain school (Touchstone), or of a certain age group (Senior Musician, Campus Life).  The magazine articles are sometimes unsigned, and a general editor reviews all the articles.  Popular magazines are an important source of information, but the content would not be as long or have the depth of scholarly journal articles.  They can be used for college papers, but the student should also include scholarly journals for depth and authority.   Examples of popular magazines include Christianity Today, Time, Newsweek, or Christian Single. 

Trade journals provide information of use to a particular industry or vocation.  They may also be well illustrated, and often have advertising appealing to those in the field or discipline.  Their treatment of a subject is not usually considered 'scholarly' but more practical in application.  The purpose is to keep those in the field informed and up-to-date concerning the particular trade or occupation.  Examples of trade journals include Early Childhood Today, American Artist, American Music Teacher, Children's Ministry, and Christian  Computing Magazine.

Scholarly journals have a more serious appearance.  The title often includes words like 'journal,' 'Quarterly,' 'Annual,' 'Transactions,' or 'Proceedings.'  The articles are written by professors, researchers, and sometimes students.  The authors and their qualifications/positions are clearly stated.  Sometimes there is an abstract, which is a paragraph at the beginning of the article giving an overview of the research method and findings.  The articles are reviewed by a board of experts under the leadership of the journal management. Therefore, we also call these journals 'peer-reviewed.'  This lends a lot of credibility to the content.  There is usually very little advertising, and articles usually contain a bibliography, footnotes or endnotes.  The articles are usually longer than trade or popular journals.  Whereas popular and trade journal articles maybe 2 - 5 pages, scholarly journal articles are usually from 7 - 25 pages, sometimes longer.  Scholarly journals are often published by an academic organization or college/university. 

To determine if an on-line journal is scholarly, the same principles apply.  Look to see if the sources are cited, who the publisher is, and who the author is. When using the EBSCO-HOST on-line database, you have the option of searching for peer-reviewed articles only, which is an easy way to get right to the more authoritative articles.  If you are not sure if the periodical you are using is scholarly, ask a librarian.