Periodicals: Journals versus Magazines

Submitting quality work means basing it on reliable information, and quality work definitely matters at the college level and in the workplace. So you want to ensure that the information you gather for your work is factual and reliable, and can discriminate between reliable vs. unreliable information. 

Popular magazines contain articles written by journalists or other writers for the purpose of informing or entertaining a general audience.

Usually, magazines:

• contain shorter articles that provide a broad overview of a topic
• contain articles that do not include the credentials of the author
• contain glossy color photographs and many advertisements
• are not evaluated by subject specialists
• do not include a list of sources used

Popular magazines are not appropriate for student research, unless you can back up the statements in a magazine with those in a scholarly journal. Examples of popular magazines this library subscribes to are “Car & Driver” and “Reader’s Digest.”  

Scholarly journals, also called “peer-reviewed” or “refereed” journals, are the primary vehicle for publishing original findings in a specialized field of study, and contain articles that are often based on critical research and/or scientific studies. There are scholarly journals for every field and subject of academia.

Articles within these journals:

• are written by experts for an audience of professionals, scholars and students within a specific field of study
• contain professional vocabulary terms and concepts
• may include charts, graphs, and tables
• contain very little advertising if any
• include footnotes, endnotes, and/or a list of references

Often these journal articles follow a specific format, including an abstract, literature review, methodology, results, and a conclusion. Scholarly journal articles are appropriate resources for student research papers and projects.