Using Magazines and Journals

Scholarly and Popular

Many types of periodicals

Periodicals is a broad term for publications that are published “periodically”

Include magazines, journals, newspapers, annuals and more

Like all information sources, periodicals can be very unreliable or very reliable

Types of Periodicals

Scholarly peer reviewed reliable primary research

Trade Reports of research and news for members of a

specific business, industry or organization Secondary reports of research

Types of Periodicals

Popular Summaries for the layperson; possible

inaccuracies or a very abbreviated explanation due to writer’s lack of knowledge.

Sensational / Tabloid Exploitive, inflammatory, or erroneous

information

Popular Scholarly

Authors are journalists Written for general

audience Often printed on glossy

paper, many ads/photos

Shorter length

Written by expert in content field

Has bibliography, charts, graphs

Content may be the result of research

Lacks ads, photos in most cases

“Peer Reviewed” or not?

If an article has been “peer reviewed”, it has been judged valuable by other experts in the field.

“Peer reviewed” articles are often scholarly. You can often restrict your search for articles

to only those articles which have been peer-reviewed.

Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Primary Sources Present new data or new theories based on

experiments, field work, etc. “Eyewitness” accounts are also primary

research because the author(s) actually were present at an event/discovery.

Secondary Sources Present a summary of known data. Reference and textbooks are secondary or

even tertiary sources.

Research Articles

Not all articles in Scholarly journals are research articles.

May also include: Book reviews Letters to the editor Introductions to the issue Literature reviews of a topic Theory articles not reflecting actual research

Characteristics of a Research Article

Format of a Research article Introduction Literature review Method /Data **A quick way to identify

research articles Results Discussion /conclusion Bibliography /References

Other Characteristics

Multiple authors Authors have higher educational degrees Length of article (at least 6+ pages and may

run to 20+ pages) Charts and tables Long list of References Not every article will have all the

characteristics

Recommended RVC Resources

For Overviews: Print materials found in Reference

Encyclopedia of Sociology International Encyclopedia of Marriage and

Family Electronic versions of the same resources

found in the Gale Virtual Reference database

Recommended RVC Resources

Sources for Research Articles Academic Search Premier Database** Proquest Wilson Select

** Recommended for your first choice

Questions

Unsure about your article Check with your instructor Check with a Librarian

Unsure about the database searching process Check with a librarian

815 921-4605 Stop in the Library for in-person help