Distributed Learning - Library Services  Tags: education forensic_nursing business nursing distance_learning distributed_learning extended_campus  

Professors often insist that your research papers include articles from scholarly journals. To find these, you will need to understand what a scholarly journal is, how to distinguish one from a popular magazine, and how to find them using the library's resources.

What is a scholarly journal?

These are articles written by people considered to be experts in their fields.   They spend years conducting experiments, reviewing other literature on the topic, and writing their article.   It often goes through a very intense review process to make sure the information is objective and accurate.   It can often take a year or two for it to be published.

What's the difference between a peer reviewed journal, academic journal and scholarly journal?

Nothing- all three are just different names for the same idea.

How can I tell if an article is scholarly?

Here are some things to look for in order to determine if an article is scholarly:

• Often start with an abstract, or summary, of the article.
• Include footnotes or bibliographies.
• Generally are longer than articles in popular or news magazines.
• Are reviewed (refereed) by an editorial board and revised before being accepted for publication.
• Include the language, or jargon, of the subject discipline.   It assumes some degree of subject knowledge by the reader.
• Report original research or experimentation results.
• Are authored by subject experts, researchers, or scholars in their fields.   Author credentials are frequently listed.
• Are published by professional organizations, such as the American Medical Association   (Journal of the American Medical Association), or the National Council on Family Relations   (Journal of Marriage and the Family).

How can I find these articles?

Many of the library databases allow you to limit your search results to journals that are scholarly. That does not mean that you will only get scholarly articles though. You want to review the articles that come back and make sure they meet the qualifications.

Need Help?

Contact your librarians. Feel free to contact me directly or use our Ask A Librarian! service.