Magazines and Journals

 Why peer-reviewed sources are

your best research friends

Other names for peer-reviewed journals

 

Academic journals 

Scholarly journals

Professional journals

Scientific journals

Refereed journals

Peer Review Process

Scholar writes an articleto share research results

Scholar submits articleto peer-reviewed journal

for consideration

Specialists in the same field review scholar's work for accuracy, honesty, 

reliability, and currency

Specialists give the article a good review.

The article gets published in the journal

Cover art and imagesMagazines use eye-catching

covers and images in order to sell copies, and contain

advertisements

Journals usually do not have cover art, images, or

advertisements

ArticlesMagazines

• Articles are short and provide broad overviews

• Articles rarely report scholarly research or go into detail

• Articles are written for the general public

• Articles will not have citations or footnotes

Journals

• Articles tend to be longer with in-depth analysis

• Articles present new research and scholarly findings

• Research articles have distinct parts: abstract, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, charts and graphs

• Articles will have citations or footnotes to document sources

Accuracy: Magazines

•  Magazines are not peer reviewed.• Stories are usually not written or edited

by experts in that subject.• To sell more copies, headlines may

distort research findings.• Advertising can influence content.

Accuracy: Journals

• Most journals are peer reviewed. • Before an article can be published, it must be

reviewed by a panel of experts.• This ensures the research is accurate and

reliable.• Journals don’t sell to a popular audience, so

they are not influenced by financial considerations / the need to distort stories for sales or please advertisers