Popular, Scholarly, or Trade?

	Scholarly Journals, including peer-reviewed	Popular Magazines	Trade Publications
Content	Articles reporting research results, reviews of the research (review articles) and book reviews	Current events and general interest articles	Articles about a certain business or industry
Purpose	To share research and scholarship with the academic community	To inform, entertain or elicit an emotional response	To inform people in a business or industry about relevant news, trends, and products
Author	Scholars / researchers	Staff writers, journalists, freelancers	Staff writers, business and/or industry professionals
Audience	Scholars/researchers, including college students	General public	Business and/or industry professionals
Review	Editorial board made up of other scholars and researchers. Some, but not all articles in scholarly journals are peer-reviewed	Editor working for the magazine	Editor working for the trade publication
Citations	Footnotes/endnotes; bibliographies	None	None
Frequency	Quarterly or semi-annually	Usually weekly or monthly	Usually weekly or monthly
Ads	If there are any, they are usually for scholarly products such as books	Numerous ads for a variety of products	Ads for products geared toward a specific industry or business
Appearance	Usually smaller in size, thicker and with a plain cover; images are often charts and graphs to support research findings	Usually glossy and larger in size with numerous color photos	Usually glossy with numerous color photos
Examples	Journal of Southern History, Developmental Psychology, American Literature, New England Journal of Medicine	Time, Vogue, Rolling Stone, New Yorker	Pharmacy Times, Oil & Gas Investor Magazine, Designer Magazine

 Tips:

• Can’t tell if something is scholarly, popular or trade? Ask a Librarian, Google the title to find the home page for the publication, or check Ulrichsweb for content type.

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