Popular Magazine or Scholarly
Journal
How to Distinguish
You may be required to use scholarly journals
to gather information for your papers. The following chart lists some of the
ways that you can distinguish between popular magazines and scholarly journals.
Of course, not all of the criteria will be true in every case.
| Popular Magazines | Scholarly Journals | |
| Examples: | Jet
Hospitals & Health Networks Newsweek |
American Journal of
Nursing
Nature Psychological Reports |
| Audience: | Written in non-technical language aimed at the general reader | Written for the professional or academic |
| Article Authors: | Journalists or professional
writers (often, the name of the author is not provided)
If the author is indicated, only the name is provided with no additional information on the author’s qualifications |
Professionals or experts
in the field. The article usually provides the author’s qualifications. |
| Bibliography
(reference list at end of article): |
Usually none | Present in most articles |
| General Appearance: | Photographs, often in color
Many advertisements |
Few pictures
Few advertisements |
| Publisher: | Usually a commercial publisher | Often an association or a press associated with a university. |
| Responsibility for content | Editor | Peer reviewed or refereed (see the back of this sheet for more information) by board of experts in the field |
Peer Reviewed Articles (also called Refereed):
What are Peer Reviewed Articles?
When an author submits an article to a peer reviewed journal, the editors send it to several experts in the field for comment before agreeing to publish the article. Often, the article will be rejected or a lengthy revision process will be necessary before the article can be accepted. This process helps ensure the final quality of the published material.
How Do I Know If a Journal is Peer Reviewed?
Check the journal
Each year the journal publishes an Instructions to Authors section which tells whether a peer review process is used to decide whether a publication will be accepted. Usually, journals which have an editorial board are peer reviewed. Often, the title page or the following page will list the editorial board and may indicate which issue contains the Instructions to Authors section.
Check Ulrich’s
Ulrich’s International Periodical Directory in the Takoma Park Reference Collection (Z 6941.U5) contains a section called Refereed Journals. In the 1997 edition, Refereed Journals are listed in volume 5. Check alphabetically for the title of the journal in that section.
For Nursing Journals, Check the Electronic version of CINAHL
The full record for the article citation includes a Journal Subset section (near the end of the record). If "Peer Reviewed" appears in this section, the journal is peer reviewed.
Differences in Citing Popular and Scholarly
Articles
(See the separate MLA and APA citation
style handouts for additional details)
POPULAR MAGAZINES
Usually each issue begins with page one so it is very important to include full date and issue information so that others can locate the article that you cite.
Example of a cited article from a popular magazine
APA style:
Schwade, S. (1995, May) Hormones and your heart. Prevention, 47, 70-78.
MLA Style:
Schwade, Steve. "Hormones and Your Heart." Prevention May 1995 : 70-78.
SCHOLARLY JOURNALS
Frequently the volume of a scholarly journal is consecutively paged so that the February issue might start with page 150 and the March issue with page 300 instead of each beginning with page 1. In this case, you can omit the month of publication and issue information since the page number will be sufficient to locate the article.
Example of a cited article from a continuously paged scholarly journal
APA style:
Williams, W.M. ; Ceci, S.J. (1997). Are Americans becoming more or less alike? American Psychologist, 52, 1226-1235.
MLA style:
Williams, Wendy M. and Stephen J. Ceci. "Are Americans Becoming More or Less Alike?" American
Psychologist 52 (1997) : 1226-35.
journal vs magazine/dlf/11-17-97
