How to tell a peer-reviewed academic journal from a magazine

You can always ask a librarian whether a publication is peer-reviewed, but there are always clues. Here are a few rules of thumb to follow. Compare this peer-reviewed academic journal article with this magazine article.

Fun factor

Bright glossy images, particularly a photo of the author, strongly suggest you are looking at a “magazine”. Austere blocks of text suggest peer-reviewed journal content. With that said, the EBSCO Discovery Service sometimes includes only the text of magazines without the glossy pictures, so this may not be a reliable guide. If it is in PressReader or graces the shelves of a newsagent, it’s a magazine. Peer-reviewed academic journals eschew 'fun things' in favour of text and charts elucidating complex data. It is likely peer-reviewed academic content if you are reaching for AI tools to turn an article into something you are prepared to read.

Title length

The more formal the article and journal titles, the more likely they belong to a peer-reviewed journal and not a magazine. The essential test is to ask yourself if you would expect to find it in a waiting room or at the hairdresser. If you would, it is a magazine, if not, probably an academic journal. 

You can see from the example below how much shorter and simpler magazine titles tend to be!

Article length

Longer articles (10+ pages) tend to be peer-reviewed. If an article is just 2-4 pages long, it almost certainly comes from a magazine unless it is specifically labelled as a letter or micro-article.

Number of references

A handful of references or fewer indicates a professional magazine. Many references suggest an academic journal article.

If you are looking for one type of article or the other and are unsure whether the article(s) you have found is (are) suitable, please chat with a librarian online or pop in and speak to us at the Library Skills Drop-In for advice. We are always more than happy to help.

Hopefully, that will help you distinguish between the latest scholarly research and high-end professional magazines that proffer opinion as established evidence. Both can be valuable in different ways, but depending on how evidence-based your subject is, only one may be deemed suitable for assignments. As always, if doubt, please ask. We’re here to help.

Download a comprehensive guide to the differences

If you are still uncertain, you can download a more comprehensive guide that compares each element of an article side-by-side and explains where and how journals and magazines differ.