SI: Popular versus Scholarly Periodicals

This tutorial will provide key differences between popular and scholarly periodicals.

First let's define a periodical.

A periodical is a publication that comes out on an ongoing basis. The difference between a book and a periodical is that a book is published once, whereas a periodical comes out on a regular scheduled basis.

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will look at 3 different periodicals; newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals.

Below are key differences between these 3 periodicals

Newspapers: 

1) Published daily
2) 1-2 pages and contain photos
3) Written by paid journalists
4) Not considered research (no works cited page)
5) Written for the mass audience

Magazines:

1) Published weekly and sometimes monthly
2) 2-4 pages and contain photos
3) Written by paid journalists
4) Not considered research (no works cited page)
5) Written for the mass audience

Scholarly Periodicals:

1) Published quarterly (4 times a year)
2) 10-20 pages and contain diagrams and charts
3) Written by scholars / researchers who are not paid
4) Is considered research (contains a works cited page)
5) Written for the academic community (medical journal is written for doctors)

*Scholarly periodicals are often peer-reviewed. To learn about peer review, visit this guide.