In your academic career you will see and use many different types of resources. Before you can evaluate each resource to determine if it is appropriate, it is important to understand the types of resources available, as well as their intended purpose. This guide can help you determine what kind of source you are looking at and learn a few characteristics that make up that resource. Once you are able to identify the type of resource you are viewing, you can then evaluate, apply, and cite it more accurately.
In this guide, you will find:
| Peer Reviewed Journals and/or Books | Academic Journals and/or Books | Trade Journals | Popular Books | Magazines | Newspapers | Encyclopedias | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To show and discuss research and publish experimentation in a field. | To show and discuss research and publish experimentation in a field. | Gives information to working professionals that shows trends and pertinent topics. | Covers a more general topic with a wide array to information. | Provides information about a single topic or general topics. | Provides current news and articles about larger investigative topics. | Compilation of short informational pages on all topics. |
| Authors | Written by and for scholars or researchers in a specific discipline. | Written by and for scholars, experts, or researchers in a specific discipline | Experts and academics in a certain field. | Experts and academics in a certain field. | Staff or freelance columnists, writers, reporters, experts. | Staff reporters or writers. | An organization or a compilation of participants. |
| Use | Course project, assignments, and research with a peer review requirement. Lends credibility to your own ideas and hypotheses. | Course project, assignments, and research without a peer review requirement. Lends credibility to your own ideas and hypotheses. | Useful for doing an analysis of a particular industry, topic papers and assignments that do not require academic sources. | Useful for general knowledge on a topic where peer review is not required. ex.: theory information, definitions | Good for exploring potential topics and learning about current issues. | Good for exploring potential topics learning about current issues. | Exploring topics and gaining general knowledge. Good for identifying key players in the field and generating keywords for academic research. |
| Audience | Reader is assumed to have a similar scholarly background. | Reader is assumed to have a similar scholarly background. | Written for practicing professionals. | Broad audience. Written for gaining general knowledge. | Broad audience. | Broad audience. | Broad audience. |
| Review Process | Goes through a strict review process by peers. | Reviewed by editors. | Reviewed by editorial staff and rarely by peers. | Reviewed by editors and publishers. | Reviewed by editors. | Reviewed by editors. | Reviewed by moderators or editors. |
| Citations | Always cited as footnotes, endnotes, or reference lists (bibliographies). | Always cited as footnotes, endnotes, or reference lists (bibliographies). | Sources are mentioned within an article but rarely formally cited. | Always cited as footnotes, endnotes, or reference lists (bibliographies). | Sources are mentioned within an article but rarely formally cited. | Sources are mentioned within an article but rarely formally cited. | Strict citation requirements. |
| Language | Uses discipline-specific terminology, jargon, & language. | Uses discipline-specific terminology, jargon, & language. | Uses jargon specific to to a particular field or industry. | Uses general, everyday language but often introduces jargon to prepare the reader. | Uses general everyday language. | Uses general, everyday language. | Uses general, everyday language. |
| Publishers | Most often published by a professional organization or specialty publishing company. | Most often published by a professional organization or specialty publishing company. | Often published by professional organizations relevant to a particular field or industry. | Generally published by large publishing companies for profit. | Generally published by commercial enterprises for profit. | Generally published by commercial enterprises for profit. | Published by publishing companies or crowd sourced (ex.: Wikipedia). |
| Advertising | Typically none or small amounts of selective advertising. | Typically none or small amounts of selective advertising. | Advertising is relevant to the profession or industry. | Rare. | Advertising appeals to a broad redership. | Advertising appeals to a broad readership. | Advertising appeals to a broad readership. |
Adapted from Instruction and Student Engagement Department, Milner Library, Illinois State University. (2022). Compare article types. https://guides.library.illinoisstate.edu/comparetypes/chart
City University of Seattle. (2022). 5 features of academic articles. https://cityu-seattle.libapps.com/libguides/admin_c.php?g=1152329&p=9047674
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