![[cupola]](/zsr/img/cupola.jpg)
From Peabody Library, this video is an EXCELLENT review for what you should include in your evaluations of your scholarly books and articles.
After watching the video, what kinds of things do you think you should look for when evaluating a website? We will be discussing the open web after the holiday. This will get us ready for that discussion.
Due: Wednesday
13 Responses to “Discussion #3: Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals”
This blog, reaffirms the issue we talked about in class yesterday and also introduces new ways of distinguishing between an scholar article and just an article from a magazine. I find it interesting that articles in newspaper are not scholar articles but ordinary articles written by anyone, ranging from a journalist to an editor.
It also eye-opening as it makes me aware of how widely articles are published and could easily be mistakened for scholarly articles.
From what i discovered, it challenges me to look at every article closely especially looking out for peer evaluations of such an article because through that i am sure of the authenticity of the article
Though I doubt that I’d ever trust anything written in a magazine to use as a source in a college paper, what is important to note is that since most magazines are not peer-edited, there is no accountability to what information is right or wrong. Secondly, I thought it was very interesting that newspapers were considered “popular periodicals,” in the same category as magazines, but the more I think about it, the more I understand why. After all, newspaper columnists and journalists are not necessarily experts in any particular field that they are writing on, and they do not have peer-editing (at least as in-depth as scholarly journals do), so not everything that journalists say should be taken at face value. All in all, I think that a good way of deciding whether or not a source is a journal or magazine, just ask yourself, “which one of these is either easier or more fun to read?” I think you’ll distinguish between the two types pretty quickly then.
This video clip is useful in that it highlights what requirements make a scholarly journal regarded as such. It makes a point to mention that a scholarly journals are not as publicly accessible in the way that popular magazines and news articles are. Deciphering the difference in online sources becomes slightly more of a challenge however. the video did a nice job of mentioning ways to separate the two online, such as looking for the authors affiliation to a university. Most people would probably think that a new paper article would be a legitimate source since it is often more factually oriented than a magazine article. However it makes sense that periodicals are not scholarly because they are often written by people who have little previous knowledge of the subject and are therefore no experts in the field.
Distinguishing between a popular and scholarly periodical online can be a difficult process. On a personal note, I made the mistake of trying to cite a poorly written, popular source in a research paper I wrote in high school.
Searching for aspects of scholarly articles such as the inclusion of an abstract, a biography, a bibliography, specialized vocabulary, and a notably longer length will help a researcher delineate between what may and may not be considered a “scholarly” periodical.
If one uses a research-oriented search engine, such as JSTOR, it may not be as necessary to check all these elements closely; however, if one is simply searching the vast and broad pools used in most search engines, it is necessary to look for these five elements in determining what is a scholarly or popular periodical.
Using scholarly periodicals is very nice. Popular magazines, not so nice. Although finding a scholarly journal article can be a difficult task, it is important to distinguish between the two because using a popular magazine can detract from your paper or project.
In order to differentiate between the two, one can look for certain things like an abstract, the words “peer-reviewed,” and/or a detailed bibliography. Scholarly journals will have several of these characteristics. Additionally, a scholarly article will most likely be lengthier than a popular magazine article because the popular magazine article is giving a summary. Finally, a scholarly article will include footnotes or endnotes that cite other authors’ or experts’ opinions on the topic.
Finding scholarly journals for resources is a very important step to writing a credible paper. By making references and using quotes from other peoples’ works, one is able to form a more coherent and substantial argument.
I did not find this clip helpful or informative. Scholarly articles and magazines or newspaper articles are extremely different in their text, location, bibliographical information and author credentials. Although Vanderbilt students may have been able to get in without knowing this information, I find it hard to believe that any Wake Forest student can not differentiate common vs. scholarly articles. I think this clip would have been more informative if it had discussed more about where you find scholarly articles vs. popular periodicals. Discussing how a google scholar search is going to produce different articles than a google search. I did find it interesting the process that a journal goes through before publication. The idea that a scholar’s work enters the academic community and can be edited critiqued and learned from.
I’m surprised that this article was supposed to be catering to college students. I feel like they started at the drawing board, and that by the time students are ready for college, they don’t tend to need help this general. I feel like the video could have been much more helpful if it had gotten more specific about what things to look for to be able to spot magazines like the Economist which could be tricky for some as far as whether they are scholarly or not. I also feel like the video was too vague about things like the authors credentials and the article’s abstract. There are plenty of journals that I find when searching through databases at Wake with authors who are doctors and that have abstracts but are still completely ridiculous. So this was a good video maybe for high-school students, but for college aged students I feel like they could have gotten much more specific and not started so general.
After reading this article I did not find it very helpful. I feel like a college student should be able to distinguish between a scholarly and popular periodical, and that the clues to look for an affiliation with a university or to make sure that the author cited different resources are common knowledge. The one aspect I did find interesting is that all newspapers are considered popular periodicals, even though many good newspapers at the New York Times contain valuable information that could possibly be used in a scholarly research paper.
I think that this video augmented what we talked in class about well. it highlighted similar ways to distinguish scholarly jounrals from popular periodicals (look, number and type of advertisements, length of atricles, bibliography, etc.). I found their advice for deciding the type of periodical form an online document to be accurate an helpful. While researching for my journal article I noticed the trend of specialized voacabulary that the video discussed without realizing it. I think that language also helps to identify the auhtor as an authority in the field and at least as someone who has in-depth knowledge of the topic.
After watching the video there were two criteria of evaluation that I thought could be taken from the journal versus magazine assessment and applied to the evaluation of a website. The first is advertisements. While there are probably going to be links to other scholarly sites, it is unlikely that an authoritative scholarly website is going to have a lot of commercial advertisements. The second is author credentials. While sometimes difficult, the key to evaluating a website is to find out who is responsible for posting the information online. Once you determine who the author is, it is going to be important to verify the credentials the author lists because they could easily give themselves false credentials.
I agree with those who stated that the information in this video should not be news to college students. It is basically common sense to be able to distinguish between a scholarly article and a popular periodical. Yes, some periodicals such as the New York Times are more credible than others yet since walking on campus, the term “peer reviewed” has been ingrained in our heads. We have been taught repeatedly to only cite and trust articles from distinguished databases and journals that can be found through our library’s website. Basically, if in doubt, find a different source.
This was a good review at a time when I am writing multiple research papers. Right now, I am writing a research paper on a fairly recent event so I am relying heavily on “popular periodicals.” Everyone that uses these must be very careful of their content. It is not peer-reviewed so it may be biased or even false. I would feel much more comfortable with a scholarly journal than with a popular periodical because it is considered authoritative.
In order to critically analyze web resources, one should consider whether the content is authoritative and if it is peer-reviewed in order to be considered scholarly. Scholarly content is generally very text-based, avoiding all those additional links to ads. To determine whether it is a scholarly article, you want to avoid the flashy propaganda and pictures and look more at footnotes or a way to verify the sources of information used. Scholarly articles, in comparison to popular/biased articles are also usually much longer and are in plain text. Other factors to look for are the author’s credentials, whether he/she has a Phd, and if it is affiliated with a university. In the end, one would consult a higher educational official when in doubt as some online publications are presented that distort the viewer’s perception of a scholarly resource.