Scholary v. Popular Magazines vs Journals Periodicals are print sources that are published weekly, monthly or quarterly, such as magazines, newspapers and journals. Instructors may require a variety of sources or limit sources to scholarly journals.
Scholarly journals contain articles written by professionals in the field.
The articles may be original research or an extension of previous research, illustrated with graphs, tables and have a list of references at the end. Articles submitted to a scholarly journal are peer reviewed or juried, meaning other experts read and suggest revisions to the author before the final version is accepted for publication. Popular magazines are not in-depth enough to be scholarly. The magazine may have a an area of interest - Parenting is devoted to raising children and Time is a news magazine, but the articles are intended as overviews. Authors may or may not be named, there may be illustrations or charts, but there won't be a bibliography at the end.