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Popular or Scholarly? Tips for Evaluating Periodicals: Trade or Professional Publications

Trade or Professional Publications

There is a third type of publication, often referred to as trade or professional. These publications are geared towards very specific audiences, usually managers or administrators in business, finance, and industry. They are issued weekly or monthly to take advantage of fast-breaking changes in products or technology, and often contain regular columns of news and commentary, as well as lengthier articles about current issues and trends of interest to people in the field. These publications sometimes include ‘how to’ articles, and valuable, practical advice for practitioners in a given area. Articles may be written by specialists or journalists.

Examples of better known trade publications in business include Beverage IndustryAdweek, and Food Processing. Examples of professional publications for the field of education would include publications such as Teacher or Instructor.

Popular Trade Magazines

The following titles made B to B Marketing Journal's top 100 trade publications of 2006.

Find Trade Publications

Find titles in these databases, then search Berry's Journal Locator to see if the publication is in our collection.