Distance Education Library Guide 

Popular Magazines (Time, People, etc.)

Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Journals (JAMA, Science, etc.)

Intended for a general audience.

Intended for an audience with knowledge in the field.

Articles written by journalists who may or may not have special training in what they are writing about.

Articles are written by scholars, whose names are listed along with credentials.

Articles do not have footnotes.

Articles are footnoted and list sources used.

For Profit

Usually not for profit

Not Peer-reviewed

Peer-reviewed

Use a scholarly database rather than a general database  (MEDLINE vs. Newspaper Abstracts).

When available, limit to scholarly/peer-reviewed journals when you search your database.

Check in Ulrichsweb (library database) to see if the journal you want is peer-reviewed.