General Guidelines | Scholarly Journals | Popular Magazines |
Audience |
Scholars, researchers, practitioners |
General public |
Authors |
Experts in the field (faculty members, researchers) |
Magazine staff members, journalists, freelance writers |
Footnotes |
Includes a bibliography, references, notes, and/or works cited section |
Rarely includes footnotes |
Editors |
Editorial board of outside scholars (known as peer review) |
Editors work for publisher |
Publishers |
Often a scholarly or professional organization |
Commercial, for profit |
Writing Style
|
Assumes a level of knowledge in the field |
Easy to read, aimed at the layperson |
Indexes and Abstracts |
Indexed in subject-specialized indexes such as Education Index, Index Medicus, or PsychLit |
Indexed in general periodical indexes such as Index to Black Periodicals or Readers Guide |
Overall Look/Layout |
Primarily print with few pictures. Tables, graphs and diagrams are often included. If there are ads, they are for books or conferences. |
Contains ads and photographs. Glossy |
Examples |
Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Health EducationPsychology of Women Quarterly |
NewsweekLife National Geographic |