Frequently Asked Questions
Understanding Publication Types
I'm supposed to find "scholarly journals." What are those?
A scholarly journal is a journal that contains scholarly articles, of course!
Scholarly journals, also called peer-reviewed, academic, or refereed journals, are different than popular publications such as magazines and newspapers. There is no single defining characteristic of a scholarly journal. In general, a scholarly journal article often:
- Reports on original research or contains a new theoretical discussion
- Is written by a credentialed expert in their field
- Contains footnotes and/or a bibliography
- Is written for an audience of students and scholars and uses specialized language
- Is published by a professional organization
- Contains little advertising
You can often tell if a journal is scholarly by its title. An example of a scholarly journal is The American Journal of Sports Medicine -- compared to the popular magazine Sports Illustrated.
The library database Ulrichsweb.com may be used to determine if a periodical is refereed. Many other library databases, such as Academic Search, index scholarly journals and allow you to limit your search results to only scholarly articles.
For more help, use our Finding Articles tutorial, or Ask a Librarian for help in identifying scholarly journals.