Articles types differ depending on the audience they are written for. Business research may depend less on academic publications than on those written for the business professional. The emphasis should be on credibility. Let's look at the characteristics of the different types:
- Scholarly or academic journal articles (*peer reviewed)
- Abstract
- Extensive bibliography
- Written by researchers typically working in an academic setting
- Usually long
- Scholarly journals publications are less frequent (quarterly, twice a year)
- Trade publications (*peer reviewed)
- Written by professionals in a field (HR, Accounting, etc.)
- Target audience is typically other professionals
- Addresses trends, practices, challenges, solutions a field may experience
- Published more frequently (weekly, monthly)
- Magazines (neither peer reviewed nor scholarly)
- Written by reporters who may or may not be experts on the topic, although they may have experience writing about the topic
- Target audience is general
- Published frequently (weekly, monthly)
- Newspapers (not peer reviewed)
- Written by reporters who may or may not be experts on the topic, although they may have experience writing about the topic
- Target audience is general
- Published frequently (daily, weekly)
*Peer review--what's that? A peer reviewed article is-
- Reviewed by authorities in the field being written about before it is accepted for publication
- Peer review adds a level of scholarly rigor