Popular, Scholarly and Trade Magazines
Telling the difference between popular, scholarly and trade Magazines
Journals and magazines have different purposes and audiences and can be divided into three broad categories: scholarly, popular, and trade based on the characteristics such as purpose, audience, authorship, and content. Below are selected key differences between between popular, scholarly, and trade publications.
- Popular magazine articles are typically written by journalists to entertain or inform a general audience,
- Scholarly articles are written by researchers or experts in a particular field. They use specialized vocabulary, have extensive citations, and are often peer-reviewed.
- Trade publications may be written by experts in a certain industry, but they are not considered scholarly, as they share general news, trends, and opinions, rather than advanced research, and are not peer-reviewed.
The physical appearance of print sources can help you identify the type of source as well. Popular magazines and trade publications are usually glossy with many photos. Scholarly journals are usually smaller and thicker with plain covers and images. In electronic sources you can check for bibliographies and author credentials or affiliations as potential indicators of scholarly sources.
| Popular Magazines | Scholarly (including peer-reviewed) | Trade Publications | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content | Current events; general interest articles | Research results/reports; reviews of research (review articles); book reviews | Articles about a certain business or industry |
| Purpose | To inform, entertain, or elicit an emotional response | To share research or scholarship with the academic community | To inform about business or industry news, trends, or products |
| Author | Staff writers, journalists, freelancers | Scholars/researchers | Staff writers, business/industry professionals |
| Audience | General public | Scholars, researchers, students | Business/industry professionals |
| Review | Staff editor | Editorial board made up of other scholars and researchers. Some articles are peer-reviewed | Staff editor |
| Citations | May not have citations, or may be informal (ex. according to… or links) | Bibliographies, references, endnotes, footnotes | Few, may or may not have any |
| Frequency | Weekly/monthly | Quarterly or semi-annually | Weekly/monthly |
| Ads | Numerous ads for a variety of products | Minimal, usually only for scholarly products like books | Ads are for products geared toward specific industry |
| Examples on Publisher Site | Time; Vogue; Rolling Stone; New Yorker | Journal of Southern History; Developmental Psychology; American Literature; New England Journal of Medicine | Pharmacy Times; Oil and Gas Investor Magazine |
Popular, Scholarly or Trade? by University of Texas Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.
