Criminology

What is a peer-reviewed journal?

Peer-reviewed journals are often called scholarly or academic journals. They are different from popular magazines. Articles in peer-reviewed journals:

• are written by experts for other experts
• usually report on research
• always include many in-text citations and a list of references or works cited by the author(s)
• most importantly have been rigorously critiqued and reviewed by experts for quality before being published. This is called peer-review.

Primary and secondary research articles

Once researchers complete an empirical study, they will usually (try to) publish their findings in a peer-reviewed journal. These are often called primary or original research articles because they are the first-publication of new research findings and are written by the researchers themselves. They may also be called empirical articles.

Secondary sources of information describe, explain, interpret or summarize primary sources. These include encyclopedias, book reviews, commentaries, literature reviews, and any books or journal articles that simply discuss the original (previously-published) work of others. Although these can be very helpful sources for identifying primary research articles, they are not primary studies themselves.

Structure of a primary research article

A primary (original) research article will usually be divided into several parts:

• Introduction
• Literature review (may be included in Introduction)
• Method (often called Methodology) -- always found in an empirical research article
• Results / Findings
• Discussion
• Conclusions

The names of the parts may vary, but a primary research article will always include a methodology section explaining how the research was conducted (i.e. what type of empirical method was used). Most secondary journal articles do not include a methods section.

Primary research articles can be intimidating. How can you tell if an article is going to be useful for your assignment? You don't have to read the whole article to find out. I would suggest reading specific sections of article in this order:

• Abstract: always read this first. It should give you a good summary of the research article.
• Discussion and Conclusion: Jump down to the end of the article. Read these sections to see the main implications of the research.
• Introduction: If the article seems promising, read the Introduction for a good outline of why the research was done and why it is important.
• The rest: If you've decided that this article is relevant, then read the whole article which will describe the methodology and findings in detail.

APA citation for this video:

Pitt Community College Library. (2016). How to read a scholarly article [Video]. https://youtu.be/c3tV8g70YuU

Please don't answer Question 2 until we have discussed peer-reviewed journals in the workshop.

Please don't answer Question 3 until we have discussed primary research articles in the workshop.

In addition to searching in Summon for newspaper articles, try this research database:

Summon is a great place to start a search, but you can build more precise searches in research databases.

Each database covers a different collection of sources, so you will probably want to search in more than one. Here are a few recommended databases:

How to cite an online newspaper article in APA style:

Incorrect version produced by Canadian Newsstream's citation generator, with errors highlighted

Corrected version of citation:

Citing a scholarly journal article

Video tutorial on APA references for journal articles

Examples of APA references for journal articles

Text version of incorrect and corrected citations:

Incorrect

David, J.-D., & Mitchell, M. (2021). Contacts with the Police and the Over-Representation of Indigenous Peoples in The Canadian Criminal Justice System. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 63(2), 23–45. https://doi-org.ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/10.3138/cjccj.2020-0004

Correct

David, J.-D., & Mitchell, M. (2021). Contacts with the police and the over-representation of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 63(2), 23–45. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.2020-0004

Citation for a print-format book:

Citation for a book chapter in a print-format book:

Notes:

• The authors of the CHAPTER are listed first, followed by the title of the chapter.
• For the editors of the BOOK, their initials come before their surnames, which is the opposite of the order for the chapter authors.

In-text Citations

Citation Generators

Most library research databases have built-in citation generators. These are handy tools to create a rough citation, but you ALWAYS need to double-check them. Here is an example from Summon:

Practice citing scholarly article in APA style:

Example of incorrect APA citation from Criminal Justice Abstracts database with corrected version of citation:

Text version of incorrect and corrected citations:

Incorrect

David, J.-D., & Mitchell, M. (2021). Contacts with the Police and the Over-Representation of Indigenous Peoples in The Canadian Criminal Justice System. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 63(2), 23–45. https://doi-org.ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/10.3138/cjccj.2020-0004

Correct

David, J.-D., & Mitchell, M. (2021). Contacts with the police and the over-representation of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 63(2), 23–45. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.2020-0004

Practice citing your textbook in APA style: