Political Science: Popular vs. Scholarly

Magazines are considered "popular" resources.  They usually have the following characteristics:

• Written for a general audience

• Written by a staff of writers

• Lots of color illustrations

• Contain advertisements

• Language is informal and easy to understand

Journals are considered scholarly resources.  Other terms used to describe journals are academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed. 

Journals have the following characteristics:

• Produced for a highly educated audience

• Articles are written by subject matter experts and are peer-reviewed*

• The language is formal

• Illustrative matter usually consists of charts, graphs, tables

• Articles include bibliographies

• Few or no advertisements

*Article manuscripts are read and reviewed by members of an editorial board who determine whether or not the article is suitable for publication.

This 3-minute video explains the peer-review process.