What is a Scholarly or "Peer-Reviewed" Journal?

It is important to recognize the differences between scholarly ('peer-reviewed') journals and popular magazines.

Scholarly Journals:

• Have a serious appearance. May include tables, graphs or pictures to accompany research.
• Little or no advertising.
• The words "Journal," "Transactions," "Proceedings," or "Quarterly," may appear in the title.
• Written for professors, students or researchers.
• Signed by the authors.
• Articles are reviewed by a board of experts or "peer reviewed."
• Follow a format: abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, possibly footnotes, endnotes and/or bibliography.

Popular Magazines:

• May have a bright cover with many glossy pictures.
• Designed to attract a broad segment of the population.
• No specific format.
• Articles sometimes unsigned.
• General editors of the magazine review articles.
• May include tables, graphs or illustrations.
• Lots of advertising.

Proquest and other article databases allow you to limit to only scholarly (or PEER-REVIEWED) journals. Other databases contain only articles from scholarly journals. If you are not certain if your journal is scholarly or if you do not know how to limit to scholarly journals in your search, ASK AT THE REFERENCE DESK.