What is the difference between an article and a journal?
Answer
Many writing assignments will ask you to use evidence from articles. Some will also ask you to make sure these articles come from journals or magazines, or ask you to examine the style of a particular journal or magazine. Sometimes it can be confusing to tell the difference between all these labels.
An article is a single piece of writing about one topic. It will have a title of its own, and usually authors and a publication date are listed. Most articles are published in journals.
A journal is a publication that an organization or company puts out on a regular basis. A journal is a collection of articles - each edition of a journal has a number of articles in it. Journals (and other publications like trade magazines) cover certain big ideas, and the articles inside those publications will be about specific topics related to the main idea. There will not be authors listed for entire journals.
Journals and articles can be compared to other types of sources. If you think of a journal like an entire website (a collection of information), then each article would be a different page on that website (with the particular information relevant to that page).
Be sure that when your professor asks you to find an article or journal that you are looking for the correct thing. If you have any trouble, don't be afraid to visit our tutors or reference librarian!