Writing Papers for Me

 Characteristics of the popular and scholarly press.

Defining Scholarly, Trade, and Professional Journals,
and Popular Periodicals

1. The Scholarly Press and Scholarly Journals, Websites, etc. Often these sited at and funded by universities as a way to publish material that would not be economically feasible in the 'for profit' press because of their small audience of extreme specialists. The purpose of scholarly journals is to inform other scholars of research findings. They are crucial because knowledge that isn't tested isn't really trustworthy, and scholarship that isn't published is never discussed and tested by the larger community of scholars. Some knowledge of the subject terminology is required.

• Authors are experts (professors, researchers, or scholars) in their field.
• Content tends to be highly specialized and includes research projects, methodology and theory.
• Appearance is sober and serious. The tone is set by a plain cover on plain paper and simple black and white graphics and illustrations.
• Advertising within and around the aritcle is minimal or nonexistent. Most ads tend to be at the front or back of the periodical out of the way of the articles themselves.
• Language will include specialized terms specific to the field. Assumes some scholarly knowledge by the reader.
• Sources are always cited.
• Publishers include research organizations and universities.
• Pagination tends to be consecutive within one volume, which may contain several separate issues. Examples: American Economic Review, Archives of Sexual Behavior, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, Plasma Physics, Annals of Glaciology, and Modern Fiction Studies.
• Access Tools are specialized/disciplinary databases: JSTOR, Art Abstracts, MLA, PsycINFO, Project Muse, Biological Sciences, etc. OR general databases: Electronic Collection Online (ECO), Academic Search Elite, etc., or are drawn from Google Scholar resultant upon a careful, informed search on terms specialists might be expected to know.

  Peer reviewed and refereed journals

  Within scholarly journals are more scholarly and prestigious peer reviewed and refereed journals.

  Articles in peer reviewed journals have been impartially evaluated by several researchers or subject specialists in the academic community prior to being accepted for publication.

  Articles in refereed journals have the evaluated by at least one subject specialist prior to acceptance for publication. Articles usually have distinct sections: introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusions, and steps for further research.

Trade and Professional Journals examine news, trends, and issues for a specific business, industry or organization.

• Authors can be professionals in the field or journalists working for the publisher.
• Content includes industry tends, new products or techniques, and organizational news.
• Appearance is marked by a glossy cover, color pictures and illustrations, a cover depicting an industrial setting.
• Advertisements tend to be related to the specific industry or trade.
• Language will include terms specific to the field.
• Sources may be cited.
• Publishers include trade organizations and commercial publishers.
• Pagination starts at one with each issue.
• Examples: Nursing, Advertising Age, Chronicles of Higher Education, Science Teacher, and Automotive News.
• Access Tools are business indexes: ABI-Inform Trade & Industry, Business Source Elite, etc.; often same indexes used for scholarly journals such as ERIC

Everything from here on in is to a greater or lesser extent popular press.

Commentary and Opinion Journals examine social or political issues. Of course, you are used to seeing the Op Ed section of newspapers (the editorials), and most of you know that Fox News and MSNBC are heavily opinionated. But, everyone may not know that, and may turn to such a source without understanding its bias. Certainly, it's a sliding scale. All news periodicals have an editorial policy and may be more or less explicit about the biases its owners and editors build in. For example, the New York Times and Washington Post are felt to lean far more left, while the Washington Times and Wall Street Journal lean far more to the right. Such biases may be less clear when we read first read Commentary and Opinion Journals, so we kneed to look for those. And, we need to keep the biases of each journal in mind all the time.

• Authors can be academics, journalists or organization representatives.
• Content may include liberal or conservative veiwpoints, and may contain speeches, interviews, or reviews.
• Appearance varies widely; some appear plain, other are very glossy.
• Advertising is moderate.
• Language is written for general educated audience.
• Sources are sometimes cited and may be included within the text.
• Publishers are commercial publishers or non-profit organizations.
• Pagination starts with one with each issue.
• Examples: National Review, New Republic, and Progressive.
• Access Tools: PAIS and Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.

News programs/Newspapers provide information to a broad audience. No prior subject knowledge is necessary.

• Authors are usually free lance writers or journalist, but can be scholars.
• Content can be news or human interest, either narrowly or broadly covered.
• Appearance can be slick and attractive, although some are in newspaper format. Articles are often heavily illustrated, generally with color photographs.
• Advertising can be moderate or heavy, and includes unrelated products.
• Language is geared toward an educated audience.
• Sources are sometimes cited, but not always.
• Publishers are usually commercial enterprises or individuals; although some emanate from specific professional organizations.
• Examples: The Economist, National Geographic, the New York Times, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Natural History.
• Access Tools: ABI/Inform-ProQuest Newspapers, Newspaper Abstracts and Newspaper Source.

Popular Magazines are designed to entertain, sell products, give practical information, and/or to promote a viewpoint.

• Authors are journalists, not experts. Articles may be unsigned or generated from corporate press releases.
• Content includes popular personalities, news, and general interest articles.
• Appearance is marked by glossy covers and lots of color illustrations and photographs. Articles are generally short.
• Advertising is heavy.
• Language is simple and designed to meet a minimal education level.
• Sources may be second or third hand, and the original source is sometimes obscure.
• Publishers are commercial enterprises.
• Examples: Time, People, Readers Digest, Sports Illustrated, and Vogue.
• Access Tools: Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Periodical Abstracts.

Sensational/Tabloid arouse curiosity and to cater to popular superstitions.

• Authors are concerned with grabbing attention, not accuracy.
• Content includes popular personalities, superstitions, diets and other fads.
• Appearance is usually a newspaper format; can also be a glossy style magazine. Tabloids often use flashy headlines and manipulated illustrations or photographs designed to astonish readers.
• Advertising is heavy.
• Language is elementary and can be inflammatory or sensational.
• Sources are rarely revealed, often nonexistent.
• Publishers are commercial enterprises.
• Examples: the Star, the National Enquirer, and the World Weekly News.

Not sure which category your periodical is in? Go to the library!

Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory defines "Document type" and for a complete listing of magazines, journals and newspapers. It should be in the reference section on the first floor of the library. If you can't find it, check the catalog and/or a librarian.

A Comparison of Scholarly/Academic Journals and Popular Magazines

In general, scholarly articles are viewed as having more authority. Articles from the popular press are viewed as having less credibility. This is why faculty often request students find "scholarly or academic journal", not "popular magazine" articles for their research sources. Use the table below to help you identify whether an article is from the scholarly or popular press.

As you read an article of either category, ask the following questions:

• What is its age? Is it likely to be the current research, or is it perhaps dated, even obsolete?
• What was the attention to details?
• What triggered the research?
• Who conducted the research?
• What methods were used?
• What conclusions were reached? Do they seem balanced. Are they defensible, given the research, or to they over reach, leap to conclusions, overgeneralize, or otherwise lack balance?
• Are the readers empowered to go checkthe details for themselves. That is to say, does the article cite its sources, provide specific data not just on the finings, but also on the way the research was conducted, what its data showed, etc.?
• What (if any) seems to be the expertise of the author?
• What is its purported audience?

Let's Try It:
A comparison of articles on the same subject of work done by the same scholar.

Example of how articles, resources, publications, presses, and other information resources can be assessed: First, let's find a good example. Consider the following pieces, all of which cover the same topic and are based on the same original research (#1 below):

1. BJ Casey, JN Giedd, KM Thomas (2000) "Structural and functional brain development and its relation to cognitive development." Biological Psychology 54 241–257.
2. Jay Giedd (2004) Imaging Study Shows Brain Maturing. Press Release, NIMH
3. Giedd, Jay & Elizabeth Sowell.(2003) "Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Juvenile Death Penalty Adolescent Brain Development and Legal Culpability." American Bar Association.
4. Spinks, Sarah. (March 9, 2000) "Teenage Brain's are Works in Progress: Here's Why." Frontline.
5. "Teen Brains: Still Under Construction" (October 2, 2005) Parenting and Family Life.

Primary piece: The Scholarly press. This group is made up of what we call jurored or juried journals whose editors are usually Ph.D. holding experts in the field, that publish articles written by other experts for an audience of still more experts. If that seems odd to you, compare it to the specialty popular periodicals like Popular Mechanics,

Example: Casey, B.J.; JN Giedd, KM Thomas (2000) "Structural and functional brain development and its relation to cognitive development." Biological Psychology 54 241–257. Take a look at this piece. It has a number of significant elements about it that are different from what you might find in a popular press article.

As you first look at the piece, you note that the authors are identified in terms of institution. That not only helps you judge the quality of the piece (Cornell Univeristy is more prestigious than Podunk Jr. College), but also makes it easy to further check out the work of each scholar.

The article's apparatus is different from that we might expect in a popular press article. That includes such things as

An abstract. Busy scholars often don't want to waste time on articles that don't meet their immediate reserach needs, and the abstract helps them to pinpoint precisely the articles that they need as well as to initially evaluate the piece's quality. The abstract may (but does not have to be) followed by an introduction.

A research review (here, Brain development: What do we know?) bringing the reader up to speed on the relevant research that preceeded the present piece. Note the relevent studies are cited parenthetically. There will then be a Bibliography or Work Cited section showing all cited articles in alphetical order at the end of the piece.

The big picture: The research problem needs to be situated, in this case the scholars question the possiblie connection between brain (biological) development and cognitive (thinking, learning, emotional maturity, etc.) development.

The specific research: Here the researchers' own work is presented in a very specific, detailed fashion. Why is that? Because a hallmark of quality research is reproducibility. The studies must be reported in enough detail that others can try them and see if they get the same results.

Conclusions: Only when the work is checked, the results found to be reproducable, and the conclusions found to be valid/reasonable can the material be added to the sum total of responsible scholarship on which important decisions are made and further scholarship based. That doesn't mean that it will forever more stand the test of time. Lots of reserach that was felt to be very solid has later proved to be wrong, often when better instruments were devised, but for the moment at least, the piece is worthy of serious consideration and worthy of publication.

References: A very detailed list of the work upon which this work is based. This has two uses.

It enables the reseracher to do more work in the field and to trace the work/ideas the authors base their own study upon.

It allows the knowledgeable professional to see who was added and who was left out of this intellectual history of a tiny, tight little speciality, clearly showing the biases and intellectual history of the authors.

Mid level: Government publications, trade and professional journals, specialized publications. Again, this is a sliding scale. In general, it is an area designed for other professionals and serious readers not in the author's field.

For example, when the Casey, Giedd, Thomas scholarly article came out, professionals such as teachers, attorneys, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists, judges, law enforecment officials, as well as educated parents, and others realized pretty quickly that it had huge implications for their own fields.

Because the original piece was deemed by those various elements of the scholarly and professional worlds to be so hugely important, the United States' National Institutes of Mental Helth invited Jay Giedd to write a piece focussed toward educated non-specialists, discussing the implications of the piece in Biological Psychology. The result was Giedd, Jay. (2001) "The Teen Brain: A Work in Process." National Institutes of Mental Health. Note how very different that piece is from the primary piece. It's a brief summary of what was said and how it fits the field's trajectory of knowledge. It's references are brief and to the point. A bit later, Giedd and Sowel write a piece that's focussed for an even more narrowly based professional audience in "Cruel and Unusual Punishment..."

The Popular Press: This is a sliding scale. Not all of that is print journalism. We also have people's web sites and such, as well as corporate sites. In every case, you must decide how seriously to take the piece. For example, what is the commercial value of the piece? You know not take seriously an article touting the safety of 'lite' cigarettes paid for by a 'scientist' on the payroll of a tobacco company unless you gave it a very, very close look. Similarly, you wouldn't take take as seriously claims about language acquisition published on a .com site trying to sell you language learning software rather than in a fairly recent scholarly linguistic journal. In general, the people who get pieces published in the popular press are reporters, often with a journalism degree. As those of you who are majoring in print or other media journalism in the Engish or Communication departments know, these are highly skilled professionals. Only occasionally, however, are they people with advanced degrees in the field in which they are reporting. They only occassionally are Ph.D. level researchers doing current reserach in the field, though sometimes they conduct interviews with such people. In terms of audience, such publications tend to draw non-professionals.

While professionals may read articles on their fields that turn up in the popular press, when they have specialized information concerning their own research to publish, they turn to the scholarly press because they are writing highly specialized materials aimed primarily at those with the expertise, vocabularly, and such to follow what they have to say. Later, of course, they may discuss the implications their work has on decisions the general public needs to make, and those can be found in the popular press, and are usually written by reporters (though sometimes the scholar writes them as well, using a muchsimpler vocabulary, and focussing on different issues and concerns.

You may have noticed that among the Giedd articles was one written for a magazine on parenting: "Teen Brains: Still Under Construction" (October 2, 2005) Parenting and Family Life. This is very clearly a popular press piece very much written for the non-specialist. In addition, there was an interview for TV: Spinks, Sarah. (March 9, 2000) "Teenage Brain's are Works in Progress: Here's Why." Frontline.

This is a sliding scale, of course, not a black and white set of absolutes. At the top of the popular press food chain are the great national and international publications such as The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Time, Scientific American, the BBC, and such. They take their reputation as credible sources of serious news seriously, and they hire, train, and guide their journalists well with strong editorial standards. Near the bottom is the kind of pulp journalism we don't take seriously. For example, The National Enquirer is a tabloid sold in grocery store checkout lines and designed to entertain. It does not attempt to thoughtfully present careful original research, but most of its readers are aware of that and do not take it seriously. Similarly, you can find some really odd websites out there that will explain to you with a very straight face that they know someone abducted by little green men, or that people of one or another ethnic group has inferior language abilities. Anyone can publish things on the web, so that's why just googling something isn't very useful unless you already know the field.

Poorly educated individuals often take seriously anything in print, and that can make them credulous victims of poor ,or even sleazy, journalism as well as active attempts to scam or otherwise manipulate them. More educated people need to be better informed consumers of information.

2002; Last revised July 14, 2008
Dr. Bonnie Duncan
bduncan@millersville.edu
1-717-871-2080
English Department
Millersville University
Millersville, PA 17551

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