Scholarly Journals vs. Magazines
Scholarly Journals
- Generally have a plain
appearance or a serious look to them.
- May contain charts and graphs,
but few glossy pages or pictures.
- Often contain lengthy,
substantive articles.
- Cite their sources in the form
of footnotes or bibliographies.
- Written in the academic
language of the discipline covered, and assumes the reader has some
scholarly background.
- Articles written by scholars
or experts to report their research results to the rest of the scholarly
community.
- Examples of scholarly journals
include: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Political
Science Quarterly, Journal of the American Medical Association and
Poetry Review.
Refereed and peer reviewed journals are
considered to be very reputable and scholarly.
- Refereed journals contain articles that are
evaluated by at least one subject expert in addition to the editor
before being accepted for publication.
- Peer reviewed journals may solicit the impartial
opinions of several members from the research and academic community
before accepting an article for publication.
News/General
Interest Magazines
- Generally appealing appearance
with good use of illustrations and photographs.
- Sometimes cite their sources,
but more often don't.
- Articles are written by an
editorial staff member, journalist, scholar or freelance writer.
- Writing style may assume the
reader has a certain educational level, but no special knowledge or
background is generally required.
- Main purpose is to provide
news and information for a broad audience.
- Examples include: Time,
Newsweek, The Economist, and Psychology Today.
Popular
Magazines
- Often glossy and appealing
appearance with many photographs and other graphics.
- Rarely, if ever, cite their
sources.
- Short articles are written in
less sophisticated language by staff members or freelance authors who
may or may not be listed.
- Designed to provide
entertainment, give practical information or sell an advertiser's
products.
- Examples of popular magazines
include: Entertainment Weekly, People and Vogue.
A
Note about periodical articles online:
Articles in the electronic
environment lack such physical elements as glossy pages, making it more
challenging to distinguish periodical types. To further complicate
matters, photographs, charts and illustrations that appear in the print
version may be reformatted or entirely left out of an electronic full-text
article.
Though it's more difficult
to evaluate periodical types online, you can use some of the same information
above to help you make an educated guess. Ask yourself the following
questions about the full-text article:
- Is it brief and to the point,
or is it lengthy and more substantive?
- Does it list the author?
- Is it written in
sophisticated, academic language, or is the writing style more informal?
- Does the article cite its
sources in a bibliography or footnotes?
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