Grace Library is open 24/7! The third floor of the University Commons is accessible to all students, faculty, and staff at all times.
Different document types offer varying levels of evidence to a reader, and a good place to start that discussion is with a comparison between articles from popular magazines and scholarly journals.
Sometimes an instructor will require that the students consult only academic or scholarly journals. The Grace Library's search box yields results from both magazines and journals. It is important to be able to distinguish an article from a journal from an article from a magazine.
|
Features |
Magazine |
Journal |
|
AUDIENCE |
The general public |
Experts in a particular field |
|
STYLE |
Written for the average reader |
Written for experts using professional jargon |
|
EDITING |
Edited by magazine staff |
Often peer-reviewed (reviewed by a panel of experts in the field) |
|
CONTENTS |
Reports on current events and general interest items |
Usually presents original research in a specialized field |
|
COVERAGE |
Articles are usually short, giving an overview of a topic |
Focus of articles is usually narrow and in-depth |
|
AUTHORS |
Journalists, laypersons, sometimes no author is given |
Experts in the field; author credentials are given |
|
SOURCES |
Sources are usually not cited |
Sources always cited; bibliographies given |
|
APPEARANCE |
Glossy and colorful; lots of graphics and photographs |
Serious looking; often have charts and graphs but few photographs |
|
ADS |
Lots of ads, often in color |
Few ads, if any |
|
EXAMPLES |
