Popular magazines

Trade, industry and professional publications

Scholarly
(or "academic"
or "peer-reviewed") journals

AUTHOR

Usually a staff writer or journalist. Sometimes the author's name is not provided.

Writers with subject knowledge or practitioners and professionals.

Primarily experts, often university researchers, whose credentials are usually included.

AUDIENCE

Written for the "average" person who doesn't have in-depth knowledge of a topic.

Multiple levels of readers: general public to practitioners and professionals.

Aimed at professionals, researchers, scholars, or others with more in-depth knowledge of the topic.

CONTENT

Entertainment, opinion, current topics, quick facts.

Trends, forecasts, news and events in the field; products, book reviews, employment, biography.

Research, analysis, scholarship. Often includes abstract, research methods, conclusion, bibliography.

LENGTH

Shorter articles providing broad overviews of topics.

Short newsy items to longer, in-depth articles.

Longer articles providing in-depth analysis of topics.

APPEARANCE

Glossy, color pictures, advertisements.

Ads related to the field or profession.  Charts, tables, illustrations.

Dense text, usually with graphs and charts, fewer specialized, advertisements.

CREDIBILITY

Articles are generally evaluated by staff editors rather than experts in the field.

Articles reviewed by editors from professional associations or commercial/trade organizations.

Articles reviewed by a "jury" of experts--"peer-reviewed" or "refereed"—before publication.

EXAMPLES

People, Essence, Hispanic, Good Housekeeping, Out, Time, Vogue, Sports Illustrated

RN, Library Journal,  Professional Builder, Contractor Magazine, Restaurant Hospitality

Journal of American History, Nature, Journal of Business, Lancet, Bioscience