Research Guides: Guide to Scholarly Articles: Scholarly vs. Popular vs. Trade Articles

Scholarly vs. Popular vs. Trade Articles

Scholarly articles are not the only kinds of articles that you might find in the course of your research. You may also encounter articles from popular publications such as Time Magazine, Newsweek. You may also find articles from trade publications such as Popular Mechanics.

Scholarly articles are not inherently better than other publications, but they are generally more suited to meeting your research needs primarily because they are written by credentialed experts who cite their sources.

Scholarly vs. Popular vs. Trade Articles
	Scholarly Articles	Popular Articles	Trade Articles
Author	Scholars with academic credentials in the field; usually unpaid	Generalists and Journalists, often without academic credentials in the field; often paid	Staff writers and professionals in the field or industry; generally paid
Audience	Other specialists and students in the field	General audience	Professionals or hobbyists in a field or industry
Publisher	Universities or Academic publishers	Magazines, newspapers, general publishers	Trade associations, vendors
Purpose	Present original research	Entertain or inform	Inform within a specific field or industry
Editorial Policy	Peer- review	Staff editors	Staff editors
Citation / References	Includes footnotes or endnotes and often a bibliography	Sources not always formally cited	Sources not always formally cited
Content	Research results, topics of specialized interest	Current events, topics of general interest	Current news and trends in a specific field or industry

Why Does this Matter?

Scholarly articles are more useful for research than are popular articles or trade articles because the information they contain is more reliable for the purposes of academic research. As a general rule, use only scholarly articles in your research.