HDFS 101 Individual and Family Development and Well-Being: Lifespan

   Scholarly Journals

• Authors are experts/authorities in their fields.
• Authors cite their sources in endnotes, footnotes, or bibliographies.
• Individual issues have little or no advertising.
• Articles must go through a peer-review process (experts in the discipline evaluate each author's work before any articles are published).
• Articles are usually reports on scholarly research.
• Illustrations usually take the form of charts and graphs.
• Articles use jargon of the discipline.
• Articles are typically five or more pages in length.
  

   Popular Magazines

• Authors are magazine staff members/regular columnists or free lance writers.
• Authors often mention sources, but rarely formally cite them in bibliographies.
• Individual issues contain numerous advertisements.
• There is no peer review process.
• Articles are meant to inform and entertain (thus they are also thought of as consumer publications because they are published for a wide audience).
• Illustrations are numerous and colorful.
• Language is geared to the general adult audience (no specialized knowledge of jargon needed).
• Articles are typically fairly short (one or two columns to one or a few pages).

Search these databases for research articles and more on your topics.  If you need peer-reviewed articles, look for the feature in each database to limit to peer-reviewed.