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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

 

Copyright Northern Virginia Community College.  Created by Anne Anderson and Beth Weixler.  Last updated April 2004.


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