Need to find magazine and journal articles on a given topic?
Try using an online article database. These databases can be searched by keyword ("global warming"), author, title, and more.
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Magazines and newspapers, like Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, are "popular" periodicals intended for a general audience. "Scholarly" journals, like the Journal of the American Medical Association, are written by scholars in the field for other scholars and students.
Learn how to differentiate scholarly sources from popular ones using the tips shown in the video below.
| Scholarly Journals | Popular Magazines | |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Written for professionals within the field of study. | Written for the "average" person who doesn't have in-depth knowledge of a topic. |
| Author | Authors are usually experts, often university researchers. Author’s credentials are usually included. | Author is usually a staff writer or journalist. The author’s name may not be provided. |
| Content | Research, analysis, scholarship. Often includes abstract, research, methods, conclusion, and a bibliography. Sources are always cited in the form of footnotes or bibliographies. | Entertainment, opinion, current topics, quick facts. Rarely, if ever, cite sources. |
| Credibility | Research articles must be reviewed by a panel of experts within the field before they are published. | Articles are generally evaluated by staff editors rather than experts within the field. |
| Length | Longer articles providing in depth analysis of topics. | Articles are usually short (1-4 pages) and provide a broad overview of the topic. |
| Look | Serious looking. May contain charts and graphs yet will rarely contain advertisements. | Glossy, color pictures, advertisements. |
| Purpose | Purpose is to report on original research, or review the field of existing original research, to make the information available to the scholarly/scientific community. | Purpose is to inform the general reader, entertain, promote a viewpoint, and/or sell products. |
| Examples |
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