English 201 Home | Research Site Index | Latest update: 07 November 2001

Magazines and journals are both periodical publications (they are published "periodically," that is—every month, every week, every day, every year, etc.), but there are significant differences in their look, content, and purpose.

PERIODICALS THAT ARE SCHOLARLY JOURNALS. Scholarly journals have a serious, academic purpose, and their look provides evidence of this scholarly purpose; there are footnotes and bibliographies, graphs and charts, not just pleasing graphics or eye-catching photographs. The main goal of a scholarly journal is to report original research, experimentation, or in-depth analysis so other scholars may use and refer to (or refute) that information; since it is a scholarly rather than a commercial enterprise, there may be no advertisements, or only advertisement of scholarly-oriented products (such as books). Scholarly journals are usually funded by universities or professional organizations, which supplement the funds received by subscriptions; usually scholarly journals run at a deficit, and authors are generally not paid for their articles. Scholarly journals use a peer review process to evaluate the merits of submissions before publishing them. Authors of scholarly articles, usually scholars in the field who have researched their subject and who often are considered national or international sources, cite sources for the claims they make; they write for academic honor or for the opportunity to engage their colleagues in dialogue on their research topics, not for money. In general, scholarly journals offer more reliable information than magazines. Some examples of scholarly journals are listed below.  As you can see, some journals are available only in print (check the library for access), some are fully available online, and some print tables of contents and abstracts online but not the full-text articles (or maybe only an occasional full-text article).  The titles with links are among those I have checked (as of 20 April 1999) for online versions offering minimally the abstracts to articles or an occasional full-text article:

• The American Journal of Political Science
• Architronic: An Electronic Journal of Architecture. "Ascholarly refereed journal, exploring the new ranges of architectural communication available through digital media. It is a platform for both presenting and reviewing research as a journal, and a forum for stimulating dialogue on emerging ideas.
• The Australian Humanities Review. Australian Humanities Review is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary
  electronic journal founded by Cassandra Pybus. It is published quarterly with regular updates every two weeks. Edited by ElizabethMcMahon with assistance from an Editorial Board. AHR also receives funding from the Australia Council.
• Critical Inquiry.  "Called 'the best of the academic journals' by theTimes Literary Supplement, Critical Inquiry provides a forum for critical exchange and scholarly debate in all areas of the arts and humanities. The essays inCI are aimed at the general reader interested in contemporary cultural issues. Contributors include both established and emerging voices that challenge the status quo, forge into unknown territories, and sometimes even outrage you—but always with the intent to encourage you to think about culture and criticism in extraordinary ways. CI is published quarterly by the University of Chicago Press.
• Enculturation. "A space devoted to theoretical approaches to discourse, culture, and society. Essays on rhetoric, music, film, literature, and critical/literary/postmodern theory, et al., are
  invited."
• Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy
• Film Quarterly
• Foreign Affairs
• Harvard Educational Review
• Hyle: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Chemistry. HYLE is a refereed international journal for the philosophy of chemistry dedicated to all philosophical aspects of chemistry. Articles deal with epistemological, methodological, foundational, and ontological problems of chemistry and its subfields; the peculiarities of chemistry and relations to technology, other scientific and non-scientific fields; aesthetical, ethical, and environmental matters in chemistry; as well as philosophically relevant facets of the history, sociology, linguistics, and education of chemistry. HYLE offers original articles, a forum for discussion and brief communication, and book reviews. Contributions are in English."
• Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy.  (Tables of Contents and some full-text articles)
• JAC Online: A Journal of Composition Theory
• JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
• Journal of Biblical Literature
• Journal of Buddhist Ethics
• Journal of Business
• Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. Full-text, searchable electronic journal, on the Web quarterly since June, 1995.  A joint project of the Annenberg School for Communication (University of Southern California) and the Information Systems Division of the School of Business Administration (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Editors: Margaret McLaughlin and Sheizaf Rafaeli.
• Journal of Educational Psychology
• The Journal of Marriage and the Family
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
• Journal of Philosophy
• Journal of Politics
• Journal of Religion
• Journal of World History
• Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies
• Kinema: A Journal for Film and Audiovisual Media.  A journal of history, theory and aesthetics of film and audiovisual media.  Published at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
• Millenium Film Journal. "Since 1978 the Millennium Film Journal has published articles about independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema, video, and, more recently, works that use the newer technologies."
• Postmodern Culture.  Published by Johns Hopkins University Press with support from the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
• Psyche: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Consciousness.  "A refereed electronic journal dedicated to supporting the interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain. PSYCHE publishes material relevant to that exploration from the perspectives afforded by the disciplines of cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, physics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. Interdisciplinary discussions are particularly encouraged."
• PMLA (Publication of the Modern Language Association)
• Sight and Sound: The International Film Quarterly
• Society for Philosophy and Technology: An Online Journal.
• Sociology and Social Research: An International Journal
• Theatre Research International

Professors teaching at the University level expect their students to do scholarly research and to cite articles from scholarly journals in their research papers. Sometimes these professors will help able young scholars get their work published in one of these scholarly journals.

---

PERIODICALS THAT ARE NOT SCHOLARLY JOURNALS. Mass market periodicals are commercial enterprises, generally characterized by slick production value, with glossy pages, lots of pictures, and lots of advertising for products like cosmetics, cars, alcohol, and products related to the topic of the magazine. These magazines can provide useful information, generally reflecting mainstream, middle-of-the-road or conservative points of view; but the articles are written to sell copy. Authors write to make money or to persuade readers to accept their ideology (as well as to gain fame)—and often sensationalize their articles so they have better "sell-value." You won't find footnotes or bibliographies in these magazines. Some alternative periodicals are ideological enterprises, sometimes identified by their low-cost (photocopy-style) look and often characterized by narrow scope, heavily slanted arguments, and emotional requests for contributions.

• NEWS MAGAZINES like Time or Newsweek are excellent sources of information slanted toward the mainstream or the Establishment. They can help you in doing research, but they are commercial enterprises without the rigor of peer review or rational analysis required in scholarly journals.  (Newspapers are also periodicals; their "period" of publication is usually daily.  Check the online versions of The New York Times or the Los Angeles Times.)

• OPINION MAGAZINES like the New Republic or National Review are written for an educated audience, so they may seem quite scholarly. However, the articles are restricted to commentary on current events, rather than in-depth analysis based on scientific research or philosophical inquiry.

• ALTERNATIVE MAGAZINES like Mother Jones or Ms or Salon OR "ZINES" like Wired are valuable for presenting information outside the mainstream conservative or Establishment media; reading a variety of alternative magazines helps keep you from getting into an intellectual or ideological rut.

• POPULAR MAGAZINES like Redbook or Psychology Today or Sports Illustrated (online with CNN) or Playboy are found in public libraries for the enjoyment and entertainment of their readers. While articles in these magazines might be informative, they are not considered scholarly primarily because they do not use scholarly methodology in the researching and reporting of the findings, and secondarily because they do not provide original research.

• TRADE JOURNALS like Auto.com are written for a particular industry with the goal of keeping a reader current on the latest industry trends.

---

Online Scholarly Journals. Review the listings for scholarly journals (available online--many providing article abstracts free of charge) maintained by Alan Liu at the "Voice of the Shuttle: Journals and Zines Page" (updated November 12, 2001), available at http://vos.ucsb.edu/index-netscape.asp (scroll down left-hand menu and click on "Journals and Zines").   Another resource for locating online scholarly journals is available from the University of Houston Libraries: Scholarly Journals Distributed via the World Wide Web.  Explore some of the journal sites of interest to you and/or related to your research topic.  See also the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography.

Top of page