Evaluate Sources

Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazines

Professional journals 

--Focus on one field of study (e.g., chemistry, literary criticism, American history).
--Are written for and by professionals in the particular field. 
--Are often reviewed by a panel of experts in the field prior to publication (peer reviewed)
--Cite sources sources consulted. 
--Use scholary or technical language that is specific to the field. 
--Give the author's name and usually the credentials of the author. 
--Contain illustrations that are technical and used to explain a point in the article.

--Are written for the general public. 
--Do not cite their sources, usually. 
--Use language understood by the general public. 
--Don't always give an author's name. The articles are written by a staff person on the magazine. Even if they give the author's name, they give no indication of who that person is or what credentials he/she has for writing the article. 
--Often have illustrations and photos to add interest to the article.

--Not all journal articles are peer reviewed; editorials and book reviews are rarely peer reviewed.

--Think about WHY you are using this source.

• Do you need information from an expert or review the research on a topic?
• Do you need to look at a current trend, determine a popular attitude,  or get an introduction to a topic you don't know much about?

When you search for articles in OneSearch (the library catalog), you can limit your results to scholarly journals by choosing "Peer-reviewed journals" from the menu on the left of the results list.