Scholarly journals typically have articles written by scholars or experts in the field. They may report research or provide an academic discussion of a topic. They usually include bibliographies. For most college level papers, you should rely more heavily on articles from scholarly journal. Most journal articles are peer-reviewed (refereed) reviewed by experts on the topic before being accepted for publication. Some scholarly journals do not have a peer review process, but have an editorial board that reviews articles to judge their quality. Both peer review and editorial board review are indicators of high quality.
Popular magazines inform and entertain the general public. Examples are Newsweek, Time, and Ebony. Because of their easy reading style, magazines may be a good starting point in understanding a topic. They can also provide a contemporary point of view.
Trade journals, which are neither scholarly nor popular sources, though sometimes are a combination of both, allow practitioners in specific industries to share market and production information that improves their businesses. (Information literacy: Module 1 identifying information, 2011)
To conduct research, you should use articles from scholarly journals. Many indexes can contain references to scholarly journals, popular magazines, newspapers, and trade journals. The table below will list the features of different types of periodicals. (What is a scholarly journal? A popular magazine? A trade journal?, 2002)

Types of Periodicals