MNGT 360

Popular publications include things like magazines and newspapers.  The articles in these publications are written by journalists or freelance writers.  Although a journalist may be knowledgeable about the topic on which they are writing, they cannot be considered "expert" in the way that scholarly researchers are, and the articles they write are definitely not research-based. 

In some cases, a popular article from a magazine or newspaper can take the results of research published in a scholarly article and make the research more approachable to the average person.

Here is an example of an article on an online news site that describes a research article published in a journal.  (In this case, the popular article includes a link to the scholarly article.)  It is important to remember that a popular article like this presents the journalist's understanding or interpretation of the research, so it would be in your best interest to examine the research article yourself.

Popular publications have some fairly obvious indicators that differentiate them from scholarly publications:

• Popular articles just look more "fun."  If you are looking at an article online or in print, and the document includes colorful pictures, photos or illustrations, it is definitely not scholarly! 
• If the fun factor isn't immediately apparent, article length is another quick way to assess if an article is popular or scholarly.  Popular articles tend to be much shorter (although that doesn't mean that a long article = a scholarly article).
• Pay attention the the language and words used.  Popular articles are written to be read by a wide variety of people (not just experts), so the writing is usually at a level that most people can easily understand.
• Because popular articles are written by journalists, freelancers, and columnists, the author's name is presented just as a byline or sometimes not at all.  If additional information about the author is included, it isn't of the "research credentials" nature.  Scroll down to the bottom of this article to see what it says about the author.
• A bibliography/reference list/works cited list is hardly ever included in a popular article.