Types of Publications

Distinguishing Scholarly Articles from Articles in Popular & Trade Publications

The most reliable criteria for determining whether a journal is popular or scholarly is whether articles go through a process of peer review prior to publication*. However, that process is rarely noted on the article itself. There are several clues you can look for, and questions to ask yourself about the item you are looking at, that will help you determine whether it is from a popular, trade, or scholarly publication - Popular or Scholarly?

What are Trade Publications?
If popular and scholarly are categories which are far apart along a spectrum of publication types (the 'seriousity spectrum'), trade publications fall somewhere in-between. The articles in trade publications may be written by journalists, college professors, or someone working in the field with extensive expertise. Articles in trade publications are written for a knowledgeable audience, however they tend to be practitioners rather than researchers (accountants rather than economists; history buffs rather than historians; marketing/advertising professionals rather than demographers). Therefore, much of the evidence important to researchers (literature review, presentation of methodology and findings, footnotes, references, detailed charts of data) is not included in articles that appear in trade publications.

*Read more about Peer Review in the The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science.

Some examples - you decide if they are Popular, Trade, or Scholarly and record your answers on this worksheet

  1. Distinctive racial/ethnic disparities exist in medical and oral health status. Science Letter. May 26, 2006: 1331.

  2. Cohen, AL, Christakis, DA. 2006. "Primary language of parent is associated with disparities in pediatric preventive care," The Journal of Pediatrics, 148 (2) : 254-258.

  3. Gold DR, Wright R. 2005. "Population disparities in asthma." Annual Review of Public Health, 26 : 89 - 113.

  4. Wershler, L. 2004. "Depo-Provera." Canadian Woman Studies, 24 (1): 105

  5. Copeland, V.S. 2005. "African Americans: disparities in health care access and utilization." Health and Social Work, 30 (3): 265-270.

  6. Harris, M.I. 2001. "Racial and ethnic differences in health care access and health outcomes for adults with type 2 diabetes." Diabetes Care, 24 (3): 454-459.

Extra Credit

Answer Key

Discussion of the type of publications in which these articles appear
and the clues you can use to figure it out.

updated January 5, 2007
Anne Zald, University Libraries