Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies.
Scholarly journals generally have a sober, serious look. They often contain many graphs and charts but few glossy pages or exciting pictures.
Articles are written by a scholar in the field or by someone who has done research in the field. There are frequently co-authors as well.
The articles are longer-- more than three pages.
The language of scholarly journals is that of the discipline covered. It assumes some scholarly background on the part of the reader.
The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to report on original research or experimentation in order to make such information available to the rest of the scholarly world.
Many scholarly journals, though by no means all, are published by a specific professional organization.
EXAMPLES OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS:
American Economic Review
Archives of Sexual Behavior
Journal of American History
JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
Journal of Marriage and the Family (published by the National Council on Family Relations)
Modern Fiction Studies
Sex Roles: A Journal of Research
Popular periodicals come in many formats, although often somewhat slick and attractive in appearance. Lots of graphics (photographs, drawings, etc.).
These publications rarely, if ever, cite sources. Information published in such journals is often second or third hand and the original source is sometimes obscure.
Articles are usually very short, written in simple language and are designed to meet a minimal education level. There is generally little depth to the content of these articles.
Usually written by someone on staff, not and expert/scholar.
The main purpose of popular periodicals is to entertain the reader, to sell products (their own or their advertisers), and/or to promote a viewpoint.
EXAMPLES OF POPULAR PERIODICALS:
American Heritage
Ebony
Parents
People Weekly
Readers Digest
Sports Illustrated
Time
Vogue
Scholarly Articles Online:
To determine if an online journal is scholarly (in addition to the items listed above), look for the following characteristics:
Basic Citation Information:
|
Title: |
The Slaton Memorandum: A Governor Looks Back At His Decision to Commute the Death Sentence of.... |
|
Authors: |
|
|
Source: |
American Jewish History; Sep2000, Vol. 88 Issue 3, p325, 15p
Paragraph from scholarly article (notice the footnotes): Early in 1914 United States Senator Augustus O. Bacon died, and Governor Slaton appointed William S. West to serve until a special election could be held. When West chose not to run for the remainder of the senatorial term, Slaton and two of Hoke Smith's political associates, Congressman Thomas Hardwick and Attorney-General Thomas Felder, along with two others competed for the office. In the ensuing bitterly-fought election, Slaton won a plurality of both the popular vote and the more important county-unit votes,(3) but because there were no runoffs in the primaries at that time, the election was decided by the convention of the state Democratic party. At the tumultuous party convention, held in Macon in early September, Hardwick was nominated on the 14th ballot.(4) Given the weakness of the Republican party in Georgia at that time, nomination by the Democratic party was tantamount to being elected. After being defeated, Slaton vowed that he would again run for the United States senate. Footnotes/Reference (sources cited) (3.) The election results were as follows, with the popular vote given first (and the county unit vote in parentheses): Slaton--61,857 (146); Thomas W. Hardwick--55,469 (124); Thomas S. Felder--30,820 (84): G. R. Hutchins--21,654 (18); John R. Cooper--9,675 (none). Walter G. Cooper, The Story of Georgia 4 vols. (New York, 1938), 3:440. (4.) Lucian Lamar Knight, A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians 6 vols. (Chicago, i917), 2:1155-7. For a first-hand account of this often riotous convention, see Allen Lumpkin Henson, Confessions of a Criminal Lawyer (New York, 1959), 49-58. Author contact info Stephen J. Goldfarb holds a doctorate in the history of science and technology from Case Western Reserve University, and is on the staff of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library in Atlanta, Georgia |