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ENGL 102 - English Composition II - Green

Scholarly vs. Popular

Check Your Source

 

Table outlining differences between scholarly journals, popular magazines, and trade publications.

Check Your Sources

Scholarly Journal

  • In-Depth- primary account of original findings written by the researcher.  Very specific information.
  • Purpose- to advance knowledge and educate.
  • Author- Usually a scholar or specialist with subject expertise and credentials provided.
  • Written for scholars, researchers, and students.
  • Uses specialized terminology or jargon of the field.
  • Format- includes the article abstract, goals and objectives, methodology, results (evidence), discussion, conclusion, and bibliography.
  • Articles are evaluated by peer-reviewers or referees who are experts in the field.
  • References are provided.
  • Examples- Journal of Abnormal Psychology, History of Education Quarterly

Popular Magazine

  • Secondary discussion of someone else's research, may include personal narrative or opinion, general information.
  • Purpose- to entertain or inform
  • Author- frequently a journalist paid to write articles, may or may not have subject expertise.
  • Written for the general public and interested non-specialists.
  • Easily understandable to most readers.
  • Format- may include non-standard formatting.  May not present supporting evidence or a conclusion.
  • Articles are evaluated by editorial staff not experts in the field.
  • References or source materials rarely provided.
  • Examples- Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, Ladies Home Journal.

Trade Journal or Magazine

  • Current news, trends or products in a specific field or industry.
  • Purpose- provide practical industry information
  • Author- usually industry professional, sometimes a journalist with subject expertise.
  • Written for industry professionals and interested non-specialists.
  • Uses specialized terminology or jargon of the field, but not as technical as a scholarly journal.
  • Format- organized like a journal or newsletter.  Presents evidence from personal experience or common knowledge.
  • Articles are evaluated by editorial staff, not peer reviewed.
  • References may be provided in brief bibliography, not required.
  • Examples- PC World, Restaurant Business, Psychology Today, School Band and Orchestra

Common Limiters

Source Types

Library databases typically search a set of published works, but that doesn't mean those are always the types of publications you want, need, or are allowed to use. You can use the Source Type limiters to tell the database that you only want items from certain types of sources.

Availability

In the same way that IMDB.com tells you about a movie but doesn't give you access to the movie itself, the databases might have information to tell you about an item but not access to the item itself. You can tell the database that you only want items that you can access the item itself from that database by clicking on the "full text" limiter.

Dates

In some disciplines and for some topics it is important to use current information. You can tell the database to only give you results from a certain time period by limiting to a publication date range.

Subject

The subject limiter area is where you will find what tags are associated with the articles in your search results. Because these tags designate an article as being about that topic (rather than just mentioning the word) you can use these tags to tell the database that you only want articles tagged as being about that topic.

Combining Keywords

overlapping circles with the area that overlaps highlighted to indicate that the word and applies to the overlap

AND

Searches for places where both keywords appear together. This is the default for all databases, so you don't really need to type the word.

overlapping circles with the entire area of both circles highlighted to indicate that the word or applies to the everything

OR

Searches for either of the keywords. They might be together or they might not.

overlapping circles with one circle but not the part that overlaps is highlighted to indicate that the word not applies to only the area without the other circle

NOT

Searches for places where the first keyword appears without the second.

Examples of NOT

Be careful when using NOT in your keyword search; this can sometimes cause good items to be excluded from your results.