Scholarly journals
Attributes of a scholarly journal:
- Most current research
- Abstract – a summary of the article
- Author has academic credentials and institutional (e.g., university, research centre) affiliations
- Structured & formal language
- Specialised vocabulary
- Discussion & conclusion can be the most useful
- Bibliography or reference list – useful to see more papers that may be relevant to your research
- Includes charts, statistics, tables etc.
- Might be peer reviewed.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
"Peer reviewed" means that an article is:
- Written by experts
- An editor and one or more subject specialists review the article before it is published
- Accurate information
- Well-researched
- Contributes to knowledge in a field
- Mainly journal articles
- Published in legitimate journals
- Trust the information given is accurate and reputable
Using peer-reviewed articles means you already know that the research is credible and reliable and you should only need to determine if the content is relevant to your assignment.
While peer-reviewed journal articles are always scholarly, scholarly journal articles are not always peer-reviewed. You may be directed by your unit coordinator to only use peer-reviewed journal articles (in amongst other types of material) in an assignment. If not, you might choose to use scholarly journal articles that have not been peer-reviewed, but you must ensure you evaluate them.
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