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CHARACTERISTICS |
Scholarly |
Trade |
Popular |
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Purpose |
To report results of original research and experimentation |
To report industry/trade trends, products, and news |
To report current events, opinions, and general information |
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Look |
Plain, serious, lengthy articles, may contain charts and graphs to support findings |
Glossy, commercial, contains color illustrations/photos, and industry/trade related advertisements |
Glossy, attractive, contains color illustrations/photos, and everyday product advertisements |
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Author |
Scholars and experts in field of study/discipline |
Industry specialists or staff writers |
Journalists/reporters, staff or freelance writers |
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Audience |
Scholars in academic and discipline related fields, researchers, students |
Members or those with interest in a particular industry or trade |
Anyone |
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Language |
Academic and technical |
Jargon of the industry |
Non-technical, written in a language for anyone to understand |
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Documentation |
Heavily cited with footnotes or bibliography |
Occasionally contain cited sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies |
Sources are rarely cited, although references may be mentioned in text |
Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed journals contain literature that is written by experts in a particular field of study.
The articles often contain reports on original research studies, literature reviews and more.
Such articles are essential when writing for undergraduate courses, dissertations, thesis, grant proposals, etc.
Using scholarly research for your papers or speeches provides the backing of experts, which can make your argument stronger.
When it comes to scholarly journals, the terms peer-reviewed and refereed are interchangable. Before publication, peer-reviewed/refereed journals go through a highly critical and rigorous review process by other scholars in the author's field or specialty. This review process ensures that the content being published is first being evaluated by the author's peers and also, reflect a solid scholarship in their fields of study.
Although peer-reviewed journals are always scholarly in nature, scholarly journals are not always peer-reviewed. Scholarly journals are research focused, reporting results of original research and experimentation. They are heavily cited in the form of either footnotes or bibliographies, and written by, and addressed to, experts in a discipline. However, whereas peer-reviewed journals require a strict "peer-approval" for publishing, a scholarly journal that is not peer-reviewed only requires the approval of an editorial board.
*Courtesy of North Carolina State University Libraries