Scholarly vs. Popular Magazines: Home

Scholarly journals contain articles written by professionals in the field. For example, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is written by doctors or nurses in the medical profession. These authors usually have the credentials or degrees earned in that specific field.  The articles may be original research or an addition to a previous author's research.  Articles may be illustrated with graphs, tables, charts, and will have a list of references at the end.  Most materials submitted to a scholarly journal are peer reviewed. Peer reviewed materials are articles that other experts have read and then suggested revisions to the author before the final version is accepted for publication.

Popular magazines are not in-depth enough to be scholarly. The magazine may have an area of interest.  For instance, Redbook is devoted to women and Newsweek is a news magazine, but the articles are intended as overviews. In addition, authors may or may not be named and although illustrations or charts may be included, there usually is not a bibliography present to support the information.