Recognize a scholarly/peer-reviewed article |
Scholarly articles are sometimes referred to as "peer-reviewed" or "refereed" because they are typically evaluated by other scholars before being accepted for publication. A scholarly article is commonly a study or a literature review, and usually longer than a magazine article.
The table below compares some of the differences between magazines (e.g. Psychology Today) and journals (e.g. Journal of Abnormal Psychology).
| Popular Magazines | Scholarly Journals | |
| Reference list | no | yes |
| Appearance | flashy cover, photographs, advertisements | mostly text, few ads, graphs & charts |
| Article length | short | long |
| Audience | general public | students, professionals, researchers |
| Authors | staff writers | practitioners, theorists, educators |
| Titles | short & catchy | long & precise |
| Publisher | commercial | educational institution or professional organizations |
The clearest and most reliable indicator of a scholarly article is the presence of references or citations. Look for a list of works cited and/or numbered footnotes or endnotes. Citations are not merely a check against plagiarism. They set the article in the context of a scholarly discussion and provide useful suggestions for further research.
Using the table above, can you tell which of the following records is a scholarly journal? Answer is below.
Answer: In the graphic above the first article from Research in Higher Education is a journal.
Some library databases allow you to limit your search to scholarly articles. (The graphic below is from an EBSCOhost database. Check the box to apply the scholarly/peer-review journal limit.) This is a useful feature, but it is not 100% accurate in terms of what it includes and what it excludes. You should still check to see if the article has references or citations.
