Educational Studies

When conducting research it is important to distinguish between journal articles and magazine articles.

Journal articles are typically referred to as scholarly, academic, refereed or peer-reviewed while magazine articles are usually considered popular or even sensational. Always know which type is acceptable for your research.

What is a scholarly journal?

The main difference between scholarly journals and general interest or popular magazines is that these articles go through a "peer review" process before they are published. What does this mean?

• Scholarly articles are written by researchers/professors/experts in a field, and they often report original research or experiment results.
• Peer review is the process by which an author's peers (recognized researchers in the field) read and evaluate a paper submitted for publication and recommend whether the paper should be published, revised, or rejected. It is a widely accepted indicator of quality scholarship.
• Peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals are scholarly journals that only publish articles that have passed through this review process.

Check the Anatomy of a Scholarly Article. It is an interactive guide to a scholarly article.

If you're not sure whether a journal is scholarly, look at our checklist.