Identifying Scholarly Journals: Home
Identifying Scholarly Journals Vs. Other Periodicals
What is a Scholarly Journal?
No single definition for a scholarly journal can be used. To determine the nature of an article, a variety of criteria must be applied to reveal the majority traits. Visit Ulrich's Directory for more information about the publisher and nature of the periodical and look for the refereed/peer-reviewed icon or ask a librarian.
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MAGAZINE ARTICLE |
SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ARTICLE |
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AUTHOR |
Journalist; layperson; sometimes author unknown may be scholar but not in field covered |
Expert, scholar, professor, etc; in the author's field |
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NOTES |
Few or no references or notes |
Includes notes, footnotes and/or bibliography |
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STYLE |
Journalistic, written for average reader |
Written for experts, shows research |
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EDITING |
Reviewed by one or more persons employed by magazine |
Editorial board of outside scholars review articles before publishing. |
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AUDIENCE |
General public |
Scholars or researchers in the field |
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ADS |
Many, often in color |
Few, if any, usually concerning books and other "scholarly" items |
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LOOK |
Glossy, many pictures often in color |
More professional, collegiate look, mostly print |
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FREQUENCY |
Usually weekly or monthly |
Usually quarterly or monthly |
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CONTENTS |
Current events; general interest |
More specialized; research topics |
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INDEXES |
Found in general periodical indexes (e.g. Readers Guide) |
Found in specialized subject indexes and databases |
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PUBLISHER |
General magazine publisher |
Usually published by some Association or university |
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EXAMPLES |
Psychology Today |
Journal of Clinical Child Psychology |
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Teaching PreK-8 |
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education |
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Time |
Research in Science and Technological Education |
When searching online databases for articles, mark peer-reviewed, juried, or refereed sources to help identify the more scholarly articles. Many databases appear to use peer-reviewed, juried and scholarly journals synonymously. These terms are indeed similar, but they are not the same thing. A peer-reviewed or juried journal, is one that has each article published reviewed by an independent, qualified individual in the same field as the author.
Sources:
Developed by Chuck Dintrone, Coordinator of Bibliographic Instruction, San Diego State University
Minesota State Library
Cornell Univeristy Library
UTSA Library
