The Difference Between Magazines and Journals
Spartanburg Community College Library

Magazines and journals are not the same. What's the difference? 

MAGAZINES

JOURNALS
  • Colorful, splashy covers
  • Contain many advertisements
  • Contain many pictures and colors
  • Written in language the average audience can understand
  • Sources may be mentioned, but usually lack bibliographies or footnotes
  • No peer review process
  • Usually written by regular staff of the publisher
  • Plain covers, often with no pictures
  • Have little or no advertising
  • Most illustrations used are charts and graphs
  • Uses higher-level language and jargon (terms and words) of the field
  • Sources are cited, often in long bibliographies.
  • Peer review process required
  • Written by persons working in the particular field.
Magazine Examples Journal Examples
Time

Journal of the American Medical Association

Newsweek

Political Science Quarterly


Psychology Today



Developmental Psychology

How do I find scholarly journal articles online?

Many of the Library's databases, such as the Gale Databases and Academic Search Premier, have a box to click on to limit results to scholarly journal articles. The box will be called something such as "peer-reviewed publications" or "scholarly journals." These and similar phrases are simply referring to scholarly journal articles.

 

Spartanburg Community College Libraries
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Last update 09/17/2008