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Bachelor of Science in Nursing Research Guide

A research guide to find BSN resources from the EFSC Libraries

What's the Difference? Scholarly Journals vs Popular Magazines

Your instructor may require you to use scholarly sources for an assignment as they are considered more authoritative than popular magazines.  For this reason it's important to recognize the differences between the two types of publications.

EXAMPLES OF POPULAR MAGAZINES:

View an article from each magazine below.  Login with your Titan User Name and Password.

Cover story from Time magazine Cover story from People magazine Cover story from Newsweek magazine

  • Visually appealing, heavily illustrated, lots of advertisements

  • Often written by journalists for a general audience

  • Language is easily understood by general readers

  • Rarely provides full citations for sources

  • Written for the general public

  • Articles tend to be short

EXAMPLES OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS:

View an article from each journal below. Login with your Titan User Name and Password.

Cover of Child Development Journal Cover of Behavioral & Information Technology Journal Cover of Journal of Child and Family Studies
  • May contain charts, diagrams, and often have a sober, serious look

  • Are written by and for faculty, researchers or scholars 

  • Use scholarly or technical language

  • Are often refereed or peer reviewed, meaning articles are reviewed by a community of experts in a given field before being accepted for publication

  • Includes full citations for sources 

  • Tend to be longer articles about research