Journals and magazines are important sources of up-to-date information in all disciplines. However, many of your professors will require that all or most of the periodical articles you use come from SCHOLARLY JOURNALS. To help distinguish journals from other periodicals, some characteristics are listed below:

 
·        Scholarly journals generally have a sober, serious look. They often contain many graphs and charts but few glossy pages, pictures or ads.

 ·        Scholarly journals ALWAYS cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies.

 ·        Articles are written by a scholar or expert on the subject. The author's name and credentials generally appear at the beginning or end of the articles.

 ·        The language of scholarly journals is that of the discipline covered, i.e. technical or discipline related jargon. It assumes some scholarly background on the part of the reader.

 ·        The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to report on original research or experimentation in order to make such information available to the rest of the scholarly world.

·        Scholarly journals are published by professional associations or organizations, learned societies, university presses and some specialized presses.

 ·        Before being published, articles are reviewed by experts in the field who decide whether the article is adding to the body of knowledge in the field. This process is called peer review. (You may also see the terms juried or judged).

 
Other criteria that may be useful, although are there are many exceptions:

 Articles tend to be lengthy. 

Journals tend to be issued on a quarterly or bimonthly basis.

Many journals have continuous pagination.

Specialized indexes usually cover journals more than other types of publications. While most online databases allow you to limit to peer reviewed journals, each database publisher follows different criteria for deciding what is a peer reviewed journal.

  

  

HOW CAN I TELL THE DIFFERENCE....

Magazines, Journals, Newspapers

 

A Periodical is the term given to items which are published on a regular basis, such as magazines, journals and newspapers. Periodicals come in a variety of styles, for a variety of audiences. They offer news, opinion, commentary, scholarly analysis, literary criticism, and reports of research, rangeing from brief newsletters published by trade organizations to in-depth journals published by scientific societies and university presses. Magazines and newspapers may be appropriate for some research projects, but usually the most important sources for college level research are scholarly journals.

 

Periodical Types & Examples	Audience & Use	Access Method-Examples
Newspaper      New York Times      Boston Globe      Washington Post      Wall Street Journal	· Current information · News stories, features · Opinion and commentary · Texts of speeches, etc. · Includes a regional focus	· Lexis-Nexis · ABI Inform
Magazines    Glamour      Jet      Men’s Health      Psychology Today      Reader’s Digest      Rolling Stone	· Focused toward the general public · Primarily for entertainment · Numerous ads, photos · Shorter articles/Broad overviews	MAS Masterfile Premier
News Magazines     Economist     Maclean’s     Newsweek     Time	· Nontechnical  language · Current events overviews · Photographs, graphs · Book, movie reviews	MAS Masterfile Premier
Opinion Magazines    Atlantic Monthly      Christian Century    New Republic      National Review	· Educated audience · Particular viewpoint · Commentary on politics and society · Book,movie reviews, interviews	MAS Academic Search Premier
Trade Magazines    Advertising Age     Chief Executive     Community Banker     Restaurants & Institutions	· Written for practitioners in specific occupations · Product information and ads · Current trends and practices · Meetings, jobs, personalities	ABI Inform Lexis-Nexis
Scholarly Journals    Business And Society     Child Development     Journal of Alcohol  Studies     Lancet     Nature     Science    Studies in Short Fiction	· Technical language of the field · Often non-profit (no ads) · Charts, graphs, technical drawings · Reports of original research · Works cited, references · Research methods, results, discussions, literature reviews	ABI Inform Academic Search Premier JSTOR Project Muse PsycInfo/PsycArticles Science Direct

 

E.Oliu  12/04                                                                                  Adapted from a Washington State University  Libraries guide.