The terms, periodicals, serials, journals, and magazines can be and often are used interchangeably. This does not mean they are all the same.
| Scholarly Publication | Popular Publication | |
| Examples | Nature, Cell, Journal of the American Medical Association | Time, People, Sports Illustrated, New Yorker, Rolling Stone |
| Look | Plain, serious, lengthy articles, may contain charts and graphs to support findings | Glossy, commercial, contains a lot of color illustrations/photos |
| Author | Scholars and experts in field of study/discipline | Journalists, popular authors, or maybe no author |
| Audience | Scholars in academic and discipline related fields, researchers, students | General public, anybody |
| Advertising | Few and highly specialized pertaining to the publication topic | High amounts of advertising for a broad range of products |
| Language | Higher level of language, more scholarly and serious, vocabulary pertains and relates to discipline | Simple, more broad language used to relate to a higher number of people, easier to understand |
| Indexing | Articles are listed in specialized databases and indexes | Articles are listed in general databases and indexes |
| Bibliography, Works Cited | Heavily cited with footnotes or bibliography | Rarely includes references or works cited |
| Purpose | Discuss and display research, findings, trends and information in a scholarly manner | More general interest, current events, gossip |
| Review Policy | Peer reviewed. Editors are scholars in the field | Editors or other magazine staff |
University of Michigan-Flint