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Chicago Manual of Style and Turabian Help Guide

Library Research Guide

Popular vs. Peer Reviewed

No matter what citation style you use, sometimes professors will ask you to use "scholarly articles" rather than popular magazines.  What's the difference?  See the table below:

Characteristics

Scholarly Articles

 Popular Magazine

Appearance

Sober and serious
May contain graphs or charts
Will not find glossy pages or photographs

Attractive appearance
Advertisements
Heavily illustrated
Glossy paper

 Audience

 Scholars and students

 General audience

 Authors

 Scholars in the field of study

 Reporters, usually not experts on the subject

 Documentation

 Sources cited in footnotes and/or bibliography

 Sources not cited or cited informally

 Purpose

 Report results of original research or experimentation

 Provide general information

 Article Acceptance
Procedure

Many (but not all*) scholarly journals are "refereed" or "peer review" journals - articles undergo a rigorous examination by other scholars in the field before being published.

 Written by hired reporters, edited by magazine editors, and published.

 Example journals

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
Journal of Sports Medicine
Internal Journal of Sport Psychology

Sports Illustrated
Coach and Athletic Director
Bicycling

 Example articles

Peer-reviewed article example

Popular article example

*Peer review = reviewed by peers independent of the journal.  Scholarly = not peer reviewed but has an editorial staff knowledgeable in the field

Checking if the Journal is Scholarly

Still not sure if your source is peer-reviewed or not?  Try Ulrich's Periodical Directory -- it lists each periodical as Consumer, Trade, or Academic/Scholarly.

Evaluating Sources

Also no matter what citation style you use, you still need to use critical thinking skills to evalute the source. This is especially true with online-only sources or non-academic journals.  Check the following:

Authorship:

  • Is the person, group or organization responsible for the site identified?
  • What type of site have you located?  For example, is it a personal page (.net) or blog, a company website (.com), an organization (.org) or an educational institution (.edu)?

Accuracy:

  • Does the author cite reliable sources for his or her facts?
  • How does the information compare with that in other works written about this topic?

Authority:

  • What are the author's qualifications for writing on this subject?
  • Is he or she connected with an organization that has an established reputation?

Currency:

  • Does the web site include a publication date or "last updated" date?

Objectivity:

  • Is the author affiliated with a particular organization that might have a bias?

What does the URL mean?

If you're not sure of the source of content on the Web, take a look at the top-level domain (part of the URL) to get an idea. Here are a few domains you might find:
  • .com = commercial, for-profit sites
  • .edu = educational institutions
  • .gov = government agencies
  • .org = nonprofit organizations
  • .pro = doctors, lawyers, accountants
  • .biz = businesses
  • .mil = military
  • .net = Internet service providers, which are companies that provide access to the Web; personal websites often have this top-level domain
  • .name = personal websites
  • .info = general top-level domains for individual sites, business, or organizations
  • countries (it. = Italy, kw = Kuwait)