WHAT IS A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

Students are often directed by their professors to use articles from “scholarly journals” as a basis for research papers.  So just what is a scholarly journal?

Scholarly journals:

are written for researchers use the language of the discipline select articles for publication through a peer-review or refereed process

Popular magazines:

are written for a general audience use non-technical language do not subject articles to the peer-review process

	SCHOLARLY JOURNAL	POPULAR MAGAZINE
AUDIENCE	Scholarly readers (professors, researchers, students) familiar with the language of the field	General population with non-technical background
PURPOSE	To make original research available to the scholarly world	To provide general information that is either informative or entertaining
AUTHORSHIP	Experts in the field with their credentials identified	Staff or free-lance writers; occasionally scholarly writers
SOURCES	Bibliography of cited sources documenting the research	No bibliography; names of reports or references may be mentioned in the text
PUBLICATION CRITERIA	Peer-review process	No specific criteria
FORMAT	Generally follows a structure that includes some or all of the following: abstract, methodology, results, conclusion, bibliography	No specific format or structure
APPEARANCE	Usually the same for all articles; minimal advertising; little or no color; graphics used to support text	Varied formats; lots of advertising; lots of glossy color; graphics used to enhance articles