The University of Toledo

Journal Articles vs. Magazine Articles

Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether a publication is considered a magazine or a journal... but you may need to find only a particular type of article for your research.  This chart will help you decide whether an article is from a journal (sometimes called 'scholarly', 'refereed', or 'peer reviewed' articles) or from a magazine.

	Journal Articles	Magazine Articles
Content	Reports of research carried out in a particular subject field or proceedings of conferences	Miscellaneous articles and news items, covering a wide variety of subject areas
Audience	Written in the language of the field for scholarly readers (professors, researchers or students)	Written in non-technical language for anyone to understand
Credit	Bibliographic references (footnotes, end notes, etc.)	Few or No bibliographic references
Authorship	Articles submitted by researchers in the field	Articles submitted by writers or editors employed by the magazine
Editors	Reviewed by referees and editors	Reviewed by editors only
Publisher	Sponsored by a scholarly group or for profit company	Published by a for-profit company
Layout	Little or no advertising Plain text with some illustrations to support it	Much advertising Pictures and graphics are used to create a "glitzy and glossy" look