Evaluating Journals & Periodicals

Evaluating Journals & Periodicals ~ Summary Chart

CATEGORY	Scholarly	Trade	General
Author	researchers, scholars and experts	people in field, specialized journalists	journalists
Length	longer, in-depth articles	some lengthy, mostly shorter articles	short, a few pages at the most
Language	uses vocabulary of the discipline	uses the jargon of the field	simple, general vocabulary
Publisher	university & scholarly presses, professional organizations	professional organizations and trade publishers	commercial and trade publishers
Sources	footnotes & bibliographies alwaysincluded	usually cited, but not as extensive	generally not cited
Graphics	charts, tables, almost no advertisements	some illustrations & ads related to the profession	lots of photographs and advertisements
Intended Value	to share original research with the academic community and other scholars	trends, news and information for the field	current events, news, popular culture, and entertainment
Examples	Foreign Affairs, Journal of Educational Psychology, American Economic Review	Farm Industry News, HR Magazine, Automotive News, Library Journal, Franchise Times	Time, Newsweek, People, US News & World Report

CRITERIA	Question 1	Question 2	Question 3
Source	Is it clear who the author of the page is?	Is there contact information present?	What is the source of content? Books? Other web sites?
Currency	When is the last revised or updated date?	Is it clear what is new content?	Are there a lot of "dead" or moved links?
Scope	What range of topics are covered?	Who is the intended audience? Age/grade levels?	Is the focus comprehensive or narrow?
Content	Is there a clear motivation/bias?	Is the information given similar to print?	Are references or sources given?
Authority	What is the expertise of the author?	Who is the sponsor of the site?	Is the domain name ".edu"? ".org"? ".com"?