Library: ENG 101 Information Literacy Program Dr. Bryzik: Peer reviewed materials

What is the difference between a popular source such as a magazine and a peer reviewed source / journal?

Magazines are written for the general public. They often have a lot of advertisements in them.

Journals, on the other hand, are targeted to students or professionals working in a particular field. The usually have very few ads in them. The articles usually include bibliographies at at the end and the author's or authors' credentials (where they went to college and where they work) are given.

Sometimes a publication is peer-reviewed which means that all of the articles have been read and approved for publication by experts in the field.

Peer reviewed materials are excellent sources of information for scholarly papers!

Peer reviewed = Articles read & approved for publication by experts in the field

Experts = People with advanced degrees in the subject or who have worked in the field for many years

Popular sources such as magazines & newspapers

Many advertisements
Glossy pictures / photographs
No bibliographies or list of sources
Sometimes no author is listed
Examples of magazines:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Psychology Today (sounds authoritative but is not)
- Time Magazine
- Sports Illustrated

Peer reviewed materials

Often include graphs and charts
Few advertisements
Bibliographies included
Authors' credentials or backgrounds are given
Examples of peer reviewed journals:

A peer reviewed source does not have to be a journal. Recently, the University of Michigan Press published A. D. Carson’s new i used to love to dream, a peer-reviewed hip-hop album.

Examples of scholarly journals, trade magazines, and popular magazines

	SCHOLARLY JOURNALS	TRADE MAGAZINES	POPULAR MAGAZINES
Appearance	plain cover plain paper black/white graphics & illustrations, many charts & graphs pages consecutive throughout each volume	cover depicts industrial setting glossy paper pictures & illustrations in color each issue starts with page 1	eye-catching cover glossy paper pictures & illustrations in color each issue starts with page 1
Audience	students studying in a particular field, researchers, or professionals	members of a specific business, industry, or organization	nonprofessionals
Content	research projects, methodology, & theory articles written by contributing authors	industry trends, new products or techniques, & organizational news articles written by staff or contributing authors	personalities, news, & general interest articles articles written by staff, may be unsigned
Accountability	peer reviewed/refereed bibliographies included	editorial review may have short bibliographies	editorial review no bibliographies
Advertisements	very few or no ads	all or most of the ads are trade related	many ads throughout
Examples	Critical Care Nurse Current Psychology Journal of Small Business Management Literature-Film Quarterly	Business Marketing Dairy Farmer Hospital Law Newsletter Nursing Times	Ladies Home Journal New York Psychology Today Sports Illustrated Time

EBSCO. "What's the Difference?"
Graft of the differences between general magazines, trade publications, and scholarly or peer reviewed journals.

The Peer Review Process Flowchart

The flowchart below is from an article cited under the chart. (Reading the article is not required!)

The flowchart shows the long process required to obtain peer reviewed status. The article or item may be published online with the label "submitted for peer review" beforehand.

Library Databases

Finding articles from peer reviewed journals and other sources is most efficiently accomplished by using the library databases.

The library databases:

Tell you where the information came from: a book, magazine, journal, newspaper, or video, for example.
Tell you the original date of publication/production. This information is called the citation. Be sure to write down or copy and paste all of the information listed below whenever you read, save, or print an article so that you will have it available for your Works Cited page.

More information about the MLA citation elements can be found on the MLA Citation Style library research guide.

Why use the library databases instead of Google to find research materials for your papers or projects?

To save time finding full text scholarly sources of information!

The SC4 library subscribes to over 200 databases. The full list is available. You can search the databases individually or search them all at once by using the OneSearch box found on the library homepage. We will discuss using the OneSearch box later in this program.