Magazine articles are ideal for speeches, presentations, and shorter writing assignments. They are considered "popular sources" and written for a wider and more general audience as opposed to "scholarly sources" or peer-reviewed articles written for scientific, professional, and other specialty audiences. Popular magazines place less emphasis on research and objectivity and more emphasis on entertainment, general information, and buying the commercial products advertised.
Magazine articles found in library databases have a high degrees of credibility. their are selected and vetted by information professionals.
The author is usually a staff writer or a freelance journalist, sometimes with general knowledge of the topic, such as a food or travel writer. In many cases the author's name and credentials are not provided. The credibility relies on the publication itself.
The articles will be reviewed by an editor with the publication but does not undergo a peer-review as with scholarly article. her/his name and credentials are often not provided.
The articles are general short and written in non-technical language and can be understood by the general public, and have many illustrations or color photographs,
The print version of a magazine is often written on glossy paper and contains a lot of ads, sometimes as much as 50% of the issue.
Almost all of Western Library databases contain magazine articles. Look for Magazines in the Filter Options. You can directly link to a few of the top databases for magazine articles below.
