University Libraries

Scholarly journals publish articles written by experts in a field of study. These are also called:

• academic journals,
• peer-reviewed journals, or
• refereed journals.

A scholarly article is always read by editors, but it is not always peer-reviewed. You may have to check the journal’s website to REALLY know if it is peer-review.

Peer-review means that the work is read and evaluated by several other experts in the field before it is published.

How to pick out scholarly journal articles:

1. Publication Information- Check the journal website, it should tell you whether it is indeed a peer-reviewed journal, and who publishes it.
2. Look for a DOI- (Digital Object Identification) number; it's like a Social Security Number for scholarly works published since the mid-2000s.
3. Authors' names and academic affiliations- Gauging an author's expertise helps you evaluate a source. The authors of the article below appear to have the university background that qualifies them to write about this topic. This information comes at the end or the beginning of the article.
4. Diction and Jargon- because scholarly articles are written for experts in the field, the language is high-level and uses terms that people outside the field may not understand.
5. A list of sources at the end- Listing all the research used is critical; it enables other researchers - including YOU! - to follow the path of earlier studies on a topic.
6. General appearance: Most  Scholarly articles are very "text-heavy." Illustrations are typically black & white charts, graphs, or equations. (Exceptions might appear in the visual arts or humanities.) Scholarly articles use a predictable format: 
   1. Abstract,
   2. Introduction,
   3. Methods,
   4. Results,
   5. Discussion,
   6. Conclusion,
   7. References.