A "journal article" or "scholarly article" is an article published in a journal with an academic focus and written by an expert on the topic.
Many of these academic journals are peer reviewed.
What is a Scholarly Article? from Kimbel Library on Vimeo.
Scholarly journal articles are very different from non-scholalrly magazine or newspaper articles.
| Scholarly (academic) | Non-scholarly (popular) | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To report research | To entertain or inform |
| Format |
Long articles Can include graphs and charts |
Short articles Can include pictures and advertisements |
| Style | Specialized language | Exciting language |
| Author | Topic expert with name and position listed | Journalist |
| Editor | Other expert(s) on the topic | Other journalist |
| References | Always included | Almost never |
Searches scholarly articles, Google Books and quasi-scholarly material, harnessing the power of a Google search. Helpful for citation searching: it allows you to link to works that cite the articles in your results list (click on Cited by).
Note: don't pay for any articles! Go back to the library to get the full-text of your sources.
