Scholarly Journals versus Popular Magazines

  Popular Magazines Scholarly Journals
Examples
  • PC Magazine
  • PC Computing
  • Art in America
  • The Economist
  • Annals of software engineering
  • International Journal of Human Computer Interaction
  • Journal of Latin American Studies
  • Cultural Studies
  • Urban Education
Audience
  • The general public
  • Scholars, professionals and students
Articles Written by
  • Non-specialists: paid journalists/reporters
  • Specialists: unpaid scholars and professionals
Editorial Authority
  • Articles are reviewed in-house
  • Articles are reviewed by editorial board of experts in that field; can also be peer-reviewed
Content
  • Superficial treatment
  • News
  • Little use of jargon
  • No bibliographies or references
  • In-depth research
  • Use of jargon
  • Provides bibliographies and references
Appearance
  • Short articles frequently broken up by text boxes or non-continuous pagination
  • Graphics include glossy photographs
  • Colorful
  • Advertisements target the general public
  • Dense text, broken up by headings and an abstract
  • Graphics include charts, graphs, tables, etc.
  • Advertisements target specialists and are infrequent
Published by
  • Commercial publisher
  • Learned society or professional association
Publication  Frequency
  • Daily, weekly or monthly
  • Monthly, quarterly, or less frequently
Good for
  • Broad overview
  • Popular perspective
  • Narrowly focused perspective
  • Current scholarly research
  • Historical scholarly perspective
*This is a simplified guide to the differences between popular magazines and scholarly journals. Many publications fall somewhere between the two. To determine if a publication is refereed, consult Ulrich's International Periodical Directory.