But what kind of magazine is People Weekly? ... Peopl

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Consider the SourceScholarly Journals and
Popular Magazines a tutorial created
byJenny SaxtonReference Librarian
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Welcome! This tutorial should take you about 10
minutes to complete.
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While popular magazines can provide useful
information, they are sometimes insufficient for
research papers on serious topics.
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For example, lets say you need some articles for
a research paper youre writing on anorexia. An
issue of the popular magazine Womans Day might
contain an interesting article about anorexia,
but it will not be as in-depth or authoritative
as an article in a scholarly publication such as
The International Journal of Eating Disorders.
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When you hand in your bibliography for your
research paper, your instructor will want to see
that you have chosen the most appropriate sources
of information on your topic.
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Now, take a look at some examples of scholarly
journals. Often, they look very plain, and
usually contain articles with lots of text.
Pictures may be included, but are typically
limited to charts, graphs, or diagrams.
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Next, think about the publications audience.
For whom are the articles written? Scholarly
journals are usually geared toward people who
work in a particular profession. The American
Journal of Physics, for example, is primarily for
physicists. The articles are written with the
assumption that the reader is familiar with
physics terminology and concepts.
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Sports Illustrated, on the other hand, is a
magazine that is meant for anyone interested in
sports. You dont have to be an athlete or an
expert on sports to fully understand the
articles. Popular magazines are written with
the general public in mind.
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The next thing to consider is the publications
purpose. The main purpose of a scholarly journal
is to report on research that has been conducted
in a particular field, and to communicate
information that is important to the people
involved in that field. A nurse who reads the
American Journal of Nursing on a regular basis
will be better informed, and better able to do
her job effectively.
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Scholarly journals are sometimes referred to as
professional journals, academic journals,
scientific journals, peer-reviewed journals, or
refereed journals. The words peer-reviewed
and refereed mean that before an article is
published, it is reviewed by a panel of experts
to make sure it adheres to certain academic
standards. Because of this, the information
found in scholarly journals is usually very
reliable.
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Unlike scholarly journals, the main purpose of
popular magazines is to entertain, advertise
products, or promote a particular viewpoint.
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Here are two magazines, The New Yorker and The
National Review. The articles in The New Yorker
usually represent a liberal point of view, while
the articles in The National Review are more
conservative. Not all magazines lean toward a
particular viewpoint, but its not uncommon.
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One way of telling whether a publication is a
magazine or a journal is to look at its title.
Many scholarly journal titles include the word
journal, as in The New England Journal of
Medicine.
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The word quarterly is often part of a journal
title as well, since many journals are published
quarterly (4 times a year), while popular
magazines are usually published monthly or
weekly.
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Words like research and studies are also
commonly found in journal titles, as in the
Bulletin of Latin American Research, or Studies
in 20th Century Literature.
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But wait a second Heres a publication called
Ladies Home Journal. It has the word journal
in the title, but is it a scholarly journal?
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No. You can tell just by looking at the cover
that its a popular magazine, like the kind youd
find in the supermarket check-out line. The most
obvious clue? The photo of Jennifer Lopez, of
course! As an entertainer, its very unlikely
that she would appear on the cover of a scholarly
journal.
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Great, but I dont have the actual publications
in front of me to see what they look like. All I
have is a list of articles I found by searching
an electronic database. How can I tell which
articles come from scholarly journals and which
come from popular magazines?
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Good question! When you are searching for
articles in an electronic database such as
Academic Search Premier or Expanded Academic
ASAP, your search results may include articles
from both magazines and journals.
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The example below shows two articles on cloning
found in the Expanded Academic ASAP database.
One is from a magazine and the other is from a
journal. Lets look at some clues that will help
you to determine which is which.
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First, look at the titles of the publications.
The first article comes from Perspectives in
Biology and Medicine, and the second comes from
U.S. News World Report.
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Doesnt Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
sound like something that is intended mainly for
biologists and people who work in the medical
profession? The title U.S. News and World
Report does not refer to a particular
profession. It sounds like a general publication
intended for everyone.
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Another clue is the length of the articles. The
article from Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
is 14 pages long, while the article from U.S.
News and World Report is only 349 words, which is
less than one page.
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A 14-page article on cloning (or most any
subject) obviously contains a lot of detailed
information. An article that is less than one
page couldnt possibly provide more than a simple
overview of the subject.
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By now youve probably guessed that Perspectives
in Biology and Medicine is a journal, and U.S.
News and World Report is a magazine. Not all
journal titles refer to a particular profession,
and not all journal articles are long, but these
characteristics do tend to be associated with
journals rather than magazines. What are some
other clues?
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If the full text of the article is available in
the database, open it and take a look at it.
If the article includes footnotes, a list of
works cited, and/or a bibliography, it probably
comes from a scholarly journal. The example
below is part of a bibliography from an article
in the journal Studies in Short Fiction. Popular
magazine articles seldom include these kinds of
references.
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Not necessarily. It depends on your research
paper topic. If youre writing a research paper
on a current event or topic like the war in Iraq,
affirmative action, or the use of steroids in
sports, you might find some good information in
magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News
and World Report. For a paper on the use of
steroids in sports, you might even find a good
article in Sports Illustrated.
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However, for these topics you probably wouldnt
want to use a magazine like Rolling Stone. While
Rolling Stone does include articles on social
issues, its main focus is on music and
entertainment. The same goes for a magazine like
Vogue, which focuses mainly on fashion.
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Your goal is to choose a publication that is
appropriate for your topic. Ready to give it a
try?
Sure, lets keep going!
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First, lets review what weve learned so far by
taking a look at these two publications,
Psychology Today and the American Journal of
Psychology. Both obviously focus on psychology,
but only one is a scholarly journal. Can you
tell which one?
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If you chose the American Journal of Psychology,
youre right! Judging from the serious look of
the cover and the word journal in the title,
the American Journal of Psychology is clearly a
scholarly journal.
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The slick, colorful, more enticing cover of
Psychology Today leads us to identify it as a
popular magazine.
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Now lets try it without looking at the
covers. Here are two articles on childhood
obesity from the Academic Search Premier
database. Which one comes from a scholarly
journal?
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Did you say the second article? Excellent! You
probably remembered that articles in scholarly
journals tend to be longer and more serious than
articles in popular magazines. The second
article in this example is 12 pages long, while
the first is only one page long.
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Take another look at article number 1, the
article from the popular magazine. Notice that
no authors name appears. Magazine articles
may or may not include an authors name, but
journal articles usually do.
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Now, suppose youre in the library periodicals
department browsing the shelves of magazines and
journals. You pick up a copy of a publication
that contains recipes, movie reviews, and home
decorating ideas. What can you assume? Is
this publication a popular magazine or a
scholarly journal?
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A popular magazine? Is that your final
answer?
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Thats correct! Popular magazines like
Southern Living may contain things like recipes,
movie reviews, or home decorating ideas, but
scholarly journals typically do not. Journals
usually contain essays or the results of research
studies. Looks like youre catching on!
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Lets try one more exercise How would you
classify this publication, Gentlemans
Quarterly? Magazine or Journal?

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With a movie star like Orlando Bloom on the
cover, you can be pretty sure that you are
looking at a popular magazine. If you guessed
correctly, good for you!
Magazine
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How about Shakespeare Quarterly?
Magazine or Journal?
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If you guessed its a journal, bravo! Again,
the serious look of the cover is the main
clue. This publication contains essays by
literary scholars who study the works of William
Shakespeare.
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Now that youve gotten the hang of
distinguishing between magazines and journals,
theres one more thing to do
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You need to know how to determine which sources
are best for your research paper.
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I used a database and found a lot of articles for
my research paper on hybrid cars. I chose 4 that
look pretty good. What next?
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Well start by deciding which of the articles are
from magazines and which are from journals. In
this case, you should be able to tell just by
looking at the titles of the publications.
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Yes, 1 and 2 are from magazines, and 3 and 4 are
from journals. Lets look at the magazines
first. The title Popular Mechanics suggests that
this is a magazine designed for people who are
interested in mechanical things, like hybrid
cars. But what kind of magazine is People
Weekly?
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If youre able to look at a copy of People
Weekly, or use the database to look at other
articles from this magazine (you can ask a
librarian for help with this), you will see that
it focuses mainly on movie stars and other
celebrities. So, even though it contains an
article on hybrid cars, its probably not the
best source of information on this topic.
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Next, well look at the journals. Notice the
title of article number 4. Sounds pretty
complicated, doesnt it? Remember that journal
articles are usually written by experts for
experts, so they can sometimes be so scholarly
that the average person might have trouble
understanding them. Unless youre writing an
extremely detailed, scientific paper on hybrid
cars, article number 4 probably wont be very
useful.
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So the winners are... Article number 1, from the
magazine Popular Mechanics, and article number 3,
from the journal Mechanical Engineering.
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Good work! By now you should be familiar with
some of the ways of distinguishing between
magazines and journals, and you should be better
able to choose the best sources for your research
papers.
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Glad you asked! The examples in this tutorial
are pretty straightforward, but there are many
exceptions to the rules. With some publications,
it can be a lot more difficult to decide if they
are magazines or journals. There are even some
scholars and librarians who cant agree on which
is which.
Journal
Magazine
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• Fortunately, there are tools in the library that
  can help.
• If youre having trouble evaluating a particular
  publication, visit the Reference and Information
  Services Desk and ask the librarian for one of
  the following books
• Ulrichs Periodicals Directory
• Magazines for Libraries
• These books contain descriptions of thousands of
  magazines and journals.

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The Kendall Campus Library Reference and
Information Services Desk is located on the 2nd
floor of building 2. Reference Librarians are
happy to assist you with your information needs.
You can reach us by phone at [phone] or
[phone].
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Heres a link to a one-page handout that provides
a brief review of what youve learned in this
tutorial. If youd like, you can print it or
bookmark it for future reference. http//faculty.
mdc.edu/jsaxton/magazinesandjournals.pdf Thank
you for completing this tutorial! Please let us
know if you found it helpful by responding to a
quick, one-question survey.