A journal (through French from late Latin diurnalis, daily) has several related meanings:

    1. a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary.
    2. a newspaper or other periodical, in the literal sense of one published each day;
    3. many publications issued at stated intervals, such as magazines, or scholarly academic journals, or the record of the transactions of a society, are often called journals. Although journal is sometimes used, erroneously, as a synonym for "magazine," in academic use, a journal refers to a serious, scholarly publication, most often peer-reviewed. A non-scholarly magazine written for an educated audience about an industry or an area of professional activity is usually called a professional magazine.