Article Types and Identification: Journals

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, defines a scientific journal as "the repository of the accumulated knowledge of a field" (p. 9).

Journals publish articles to communicate research to the academic community.

Frequently, journal articles are peer-reviewed or refereed. They may also be called scholarly. What does it mean to be peer-reviewed or refereed or scholarly?

A peer-reviewed journal is one that is reviewed by persons who are not members of the editorial board and who are not paid employees of the journal. The reviewers are “peers” of the authors in the sense that they have comparable academic or professional experience and are thus qualified to meaningfully critique the quality of the article. The decision whether or not to publish an article normally depends primarily on the judgment of the reviewers, though the editors arbitrate between - and sometimes override - the reviewers’ decisions. The purpose of a peer review system is to ensure an objective standard of quality in articles accepted for publication, which does not depend merely on the subjective preferences of the editorial staff (as long as the articles are consistent with the goals of the journal).

Refereed is another name for peer-review, as the peers who review the article serve as a sort of referee.

The peer-reviewed (or scholarly) label means, literally, that a panel of independent scholars have recommended the article for publication.

To find peer-reviewed journals, use a database of academic journals such as EBSCOhost's Academic Search Premier.

Journal articles are the best source of information you will find. Journal articles are very different from other kinds of articles. Many library databases will allow you to search for journal articles. However, you need to be able to identify journal articles on sight, that is, by looking at them. Why? Because databases often index every item in a journal, including letters to the editor, editorials, news briefs, etc. As far as the database is concerned, these items qualify as journal articles because they are published within a journal issue.

Some characteristics to look for that can identify a journal article:

• Abstracts - Journal articles frequently contain an abstract, or descriptive summary of the article, before the main body of the article.
• Authors - Journal articles are authored by researchers and experts. They frequently (but not always, depending on the discipline) have a Ph.D. in their area of research. See if you can determine qualifications of the author. Often, this qualification is present on the first page of the article. It could include Dr. before their name(s) or Ph.D. after. Look also for universities or research institutions as affiliations in the database record or also on the first page. Often university affiliation is on the bottom corner of the first page of the article.
  • Frequently, depending on the discipline, articles in the social sciences are authored by multiple authors.
• Journal Article Titles - Often, journal article titles (not the journal name) are long and descriptive. The longer the article title, the more likely it is to be a journal article.
• Article Sections - Journal articles have some very clearly labeled sections: Introduction, Methodology, Literature Review, Results, Discussion, References.
• Length - The longer the article, the more likely it is to be a journal article. You will find five-page journal articles, but they are rare. Most research articles average 10-15 pages in length.
• Sources - Journal articles ALWAYS contain a bibliography or references list. ALWAYS.
• Frequency - usually published monthly or quarterly
• Contents - research in the profession or field
• Advertising - few or none. Advertising is generally rare for journal articles.
• Tables, Charts, Graphs - Frequently, journal articles contain tables, charts and graphs to summarize their research.  The presence of photographs is not necessarily indicative of journal articles, but tables, charts, and graphs definitely are.
• Where? - The most likely place to find journal articles is an academic library. You probably will not find them at your local public library.
• Cost - Journals are expensive. Journal subscriptions can cost as much as $10,000 per year.

In terms of determining if it is a journal article or not, look for a bibliography at the end of the article.

Note: None of this makes a determination whether a given article is considered a research article.