Friday March 12, 2010
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Popular Magazines vs. Scholarly Journals


 

Popular Magazines

Scholarly 
Journals

Purpose

To provide general information or to entertain

To report on original research/in-depth studies on specialized subjects

Language

Appropriate for a broad, general audience

Technical language, jargon of the discipline, appropriate for scholars

Appearance

Include advertising
Include photographs

Contain little advertising
May contain charts and graphs, but usually no photographs

Documentation

Sources may be mentioned, but rarely fully cited or included in bibliographies

Sources are cited in footnotes or bibliographies

Authors

Magazine staff, free-lance writers, reporters

Scholars or researchers in the field

Peer-Reviewed

No

Yes - often reviewed by the author's peers before publication

Publishing Schedule

Usually weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly

Quarterly, twice a year, or less

Indexing

Usually indexed in such sources as Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature

Usually indexed in such sources as ERIC, Psychological Abstracts, Medline

Examples

Sports Illustrated, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Psychology Today

Political Quarterly, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Source: http://www.nvcc.edu/alexandria/library/instruction/magjrnl.htm