Staying Current: keeping up-to-date

Comparing scholarly journals and popular magazines.

Scholarly journals

These publications are used to disseminate the results of empirical research and they are peer reviewed by peer researchers in their field.

1. Intended audience: Aimed at an academic audience, policy makers or professionals in their field
2. Authors: Depending on their discipline, 1-100 authors with academic credentials
3. Format: Depending on the type of academic article. Usually includes an Introduction, Body paragraphs, Results and Discussion. Could also follow the IMRAD structure when disseminating original research. Lengthy (Between 10-60 pages)
4. Reading level: Aimed at the level of academic reading with lots of technical jargon and formulas
5. Reference list? A definite requirement

Magazines (Popular magazines)

These are published by commercial companies and do not always undergo peer review. They contain content written in lay language for the general public. However, sometimes the research from Scholarly journals is translated using this channel.

1. Intended audience: Intended for the broader public
2. Authors: 1-3 authors, reporters or journalists
3. Format: Shorter length for easy reading (1-10 pages)
4. Reading level: Depending on the aims of the publication, usually intended to be easy to digest
5. Reference list? Often not provided

Examples:

• New Scientist
• Newsweek
• Nutrition Today
• Practical Homeschooling
• Psychology Today

Use Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines to stay up to date with magazines. You can login using your Google or Microsoft account. That allows you to save documents, citations, and highlights to Google Drive™ or to Microsoft.

After accessing Popular Magazines, continue with a Publication search. You can find a list of all the latest issues for the publication and click into one of these, or search within the publication using key words. You can also create a 'journal alert' individually. Choose between email or RSS alerts.