Clues to Use

Clues to Use

Can I tell from a Citation if a Periodical is Scholarly or Popular?

You may be able to make some educated guesses. Remember, these are only clues – you can really only tell whether a periodical is popular or scholarly if you examine the periodical itself. But you can use some pretty strong clues…

	Popular	Scholarly
Number of Authors	Fewer authors	Frequently several authors
Length of Article	Shorter articles	Frequently longer articles
Article title	Catchy titles Everyday language	Descriptive titles Specialized or technical language
Periodical title	Frequently one word	May have the following words: Journal Review Quarterly
Frequency	Weekly or monthly: May 25, 1999 or May 2000	Usually quarterly or monthly: Spring 1997 or January 1998

Next Step:
Go to the periodicals themselves, and examine them using the blue "What Kind of Periodical Is It?" handout.

Still can't tell the difference? Try these:

Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory (Reference Desk Z6941 .U5)
Magazines for Libraries (Reference Desk Z6941 .M23)

Judith Faust is responsible for this web page.
Last updated: 05/07/02