What are the Differences between Scholarly, Trade and Popular Engineering Articles and Why Would You Want To Know?
Depending on the purpose of your engineering research, you will want to use different types of journals and magazines. Below are the four major types of publications that will (or at least sometimes will) contain information about engineering.
Scholarly Engineering Journals are used for serious academic research. They are highly technical, usually report on the results of scholarly research, and most often have a lot of data and tables.
Trade Publications are written to inform a reader about the latest developments in a particular area of Engineering. Their audience is professionals in the field and students. They are written in a language that is easier to understand than scholarly articles, and have lots of photos and advertising.
Popular Science Magazines are intended to inform interested general readers about recent science topics and scientific research.
Popular General Interest Magazines are intended to entertain, and although they sometimes include articles about science, such articles are easy to read and have few technical terms.
For a description of the kinds of articles each type contains, see the table below.
| Characteristics | Scholarly Journals | Trade Magazines | Popular Science Magazines | Popular (General Interest) Magazines |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cover |  |
 |
 |
 |
| Appearance |
Sober, serious, lots of data and tables |
Glossy, lots of photos, technical in nature, technical ads |
Glossy, lots of photos and ads (science related) |
Glossy, lots of ads and often photos of celebrities |
| Audience | Researchers, students | Professionals in the field, students | General audience interested in science topics | General audience wanting to be entertained |
| Purpose |
Sharing results of scholarly research |
Informing about the latest developments in a profession |
Informing in accessible language about recent scientific topics and research |
Entertaining the general public |
| Documentation | Provides list of scholarly sources at end of article | Sometimes provides sources | Sometimes provides sources | Usually does not provides sources |
| Language | Highly technical, lots of jargon | Somewhat technical, but accessible | Somewhat technical, but fairly easy to read | Easy to read, few technical terms |
| Article Characteristics | Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References | Industry news, product reviews, job advertisements | Hot topics in science: evolution, earthquakes, dinosaurs, etc. | Gossip, current events, hot topics |
| Examples |
Journal of Mechanical Design International Materials Reviews |
Mechanical Engineering Automotive Engineering |
Scientific American Popular Mechanics |
Time Rolling Stone |
Cited references are the articles, books or other materials listed in a bibliography or as works cited in a particular publication. Because citation databases index each reference, it is possible to search these cited references. One can follow a particular cited reference, or cited author, forward in time to find more current articles that have also cited that author or work.
Go to A-Z Database List, select Indexed from the All Database Types dropdown, see example .
