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El Paso Community College
Library Research Guides

INRW 0310: Library Basics Gomez: Magazines vs. Journals

Provide an overview of Library Resources

Magazines vs. Journals

If your instructor ever asks you to find a magazine or a journal, you might be wondering, "What is the difference?"

Magazine

  

time.com/prevention.com

  • Written for a general audience at about the 7th grade level.
  • Articles are usually written by people with journalism or English degrees.  The authors don't always have a degree in the field they are writing about.
  • Usually have a lot of pictures and advertisements.  The goal of a magazine is to sell magazines, so they put something eye-catching on the cover to get your attention.

Journal

 

tandfonline.com/nursingcenter.com

  • Contains information and research on a particular field of study. 
  • Articles in journals are written by people who have a degree in that particular or similar field or they have a lot of experience in that area of study.
  • The articles are usually written for the professional and may use technical language.
  • The goal of a journal is to further knowledge in a particular field.
  • Articles usually contain abstracts, graphs, and bibliographies.
  • There are journals for all different types of subjects (business, political science, nursing, libraries, science, history, etc.)
  • Information is more reliable than a magazine, because the articles are written by professionals in that field.

 

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