CSU Libraries > How Do I > Research > The Journal vs. Magazine Guide

The Journal vs. Magazine Guide

Magazine, journal, periodical, and serial all mean roughly the same thing: publications that come out regularly three or four times a year or more. Professors want you to use journal articles for speeches, papers, and essays. Journal articles often cover topics not yet available in books, publish the research for a variety of disciplines, and are a record of the news of the day. The best way to look at the world of journals if divide and conquer.

Scholarly versus Popular

Scholarly Journals

1. Contain original research papers.
2. Sometimes have review articles in which an author looks carefully at what has been written in the field.
3. Have articles that always have references cited at the end, much like the Works Cited lists at the ends of your papers. You can use these references to hunt for more articles.
4. Are generally not glossy and pretty (Psychology Today is an exception).
5. Except for several notable science and medical titles, journals are published monthly or quarterly.
6. Authors are experts in their fields and sometimes have their credentials included with their names.

Popular Magazines

1. Contain second hand accounts of research.
2. Articles do not contain lists of references. It is hard to find out where the authors obtained their information.
3. Articles are similar to the paper you are doing but without a Works Cited.
4. Glossy and pretty.
5. Available daily, weekly or monthly.

Note: this is not a good, full, or particularly useful set of distinctions by itself. There are many magazines that fall into a grey area between scholarly and popular publications: Scientific American, the Atlantic Monthly, and North American Review do not fit well into either category.

Authoritative versus Unreliable

Authoritative Journals

1. May contain research articles.
   
   OR
2. May contain current and detailed accounts of news at the time it happened. One of the most authoritative sources on the sinking of the Titanic is the April 14, 1912 NY Times and the paper for the days afterward.
   
   OR
3. Contain long and "meaty" articles.

Unreliable Magazines

1. Contain second and third hand pieces on research often without references or even an author who signs his/her name.
2. Go for sensation rather than coverage. Most news stories have two sides, but you would not know it from these journals.
3. Contain short glossy articles.
4. Typically "popular interest" and "women's magazines" such as People, GQ, Ebony, and Good Housekeeping are not considered authoritative.

Partisan versus Not-So-Partisan

There is no such thing as an unbiased periodical. Still there are some that try to aim for the proverbial middle of the road. Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report come to mind. Writing a paper using only these, however, can be a very dull experience.

Material written by those promoting a point of view or with a stake in the issue is often far more interesting, as long as you are aware of its limitations and you do some searching for the opposing side. Here is a partial list of "biased" periodicals. Keep in mind, bias is not just political. The scientific, medical, and religious communities also produce publications that have slanted articles. Biased articles are especially useful because those writing them have a stake in the issue, for example doctors or biologists writing about animal research, gynecologists writing about abortion, etc...

(Links are provided to publication web sites which provide varying amounts of information online. Check GIL for local print holdings for articles that are not available online.)

• The Nation (political: liberal/progressive)
• The New Republic (political: neo-liberal)
• Mother Jones (political: progressive)
• National Review (political: conservative)
• American Spectator (political: conservative)
• Reason (political: libertarian)
• Nature (scientific community)
• Science (scientific community)
• Christian Century (mainline Protestant)
• Christianity Today (conservative Protestant)
• Commentary (Jewish and politically conservative)
• JAMA (medical community - U.S.)
• Lancet (medical community - Great Britain)

American versus Foreign

What you read in a magazine or journal is also influenced by where it is published. Foreign magazines in this library are either British or Canadian. For certain subjects, it is interesting to see both an American and outside point of view. For example, genetically engineered crops grow routinely in American fields while there are heavy protests against them in Britain.

(Links are provided to publication web sites which provide varying amounts of information online. Check GIL for local print holdings for articles that are not available online.)

American Magazines (not an inclusive list)

• Time
• Newsweek
• BusinessWeek
• US News & World Report
• Science
• Science News
• JAMA

British Magazines (not an inclusive list)

• New Statesman
• Economist
• Nature
• New Scientist
• Lancet

Canadian Magazines (not an inclusive list)

• Macleans

Journal Restrictions

Occasionally a professor will place a restriction on the sources you can use for your paper. Here is a list of the common restrictions and what they mean in plain English. If you are uncertain whether it is OK to use a journal article for your research when you have a restriction, the best person to contact is your professor. Here are some common restrictions:

Primary Sources:

Research articles in scholarly journals (no literature reviews)

Scholarly Sources:

Scholarly journals and the articles may be something other than research papers.

No Time and Nesweek:

Authoritative journals minus popular news magazines.

Quality Sources:

Authoritative journals. Remember for current events topics, newspapers and news magazines are authoritative.

Remember do lots of looking and ask lots of questions.

Author EHK -- January 2005