The information in this table will help you distinguish between popular magazine and scholarly journal articles. All assignments for this class involve scholarly journals, not magazines. All journals listed in this library guide are scholarly. For other journals, use the Ulrichsweb.com database to confirm that a journal is refereed (scholarly) by looking up a journal and checking for Refereed icon 
. If you still have questions about a journal, contact the instructor or librarian for this class.
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Popular Magazine |
Scholarly Journal |
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Examples: Time |
Examples: Social Science Research |
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Intended audience is the general public |
Intended audience is the scholarly reader (professor, |
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Generally slick and attractive, with many color graphics |
Few advertisements and glossy pages or pictures |
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Broad overviews of topics and/or current events |
In-depth analysis of original research |
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Relatively short articles written in non-technical language |
Longer articles written in the vocabulary of the profession |
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Author usually a staff writer or journalist |
Author usually an expert or specialist in the field |
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Author’s name and credentials often not provided |
Author’s name and credentials always provided |
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Articles not evaluated (refereed) by experts in the field |
Articles usually reviewed and critically evaluated by a panel |
|
A bibliography (or list of sources the author consulted) |
A bibliography and/or footnotes always provided to |
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Articles do not necessarily follow a specific format or |
Articles usually more structured, especially in the sciences |
Handout created by Janet Dagenais Brown, Education Librarian
