LibGuides: Starting Your Research: Journals

What Are Scholarly Journals?

Scholarly journals are sometimes called academic, refereed, or peer reviewed journals. They are a type of periodical, but they differ from other periodicals in a number of important ways:

Purpose: The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to communicate the results of academic research. They are used by scholars both to keep up-to-date on what other researchers are doing, and to communicate the results of their own scholarship.

Author credentials: Scholarly articles are written by academics or professionals who are experts in their field of study.

Intended audience: Scholarly articles are written for the author's peers – fellow experts in a particular academic field.

Writing style: Because scholarly articles are written for a specialized audience, they often contain technical vocabulary and academic jargon.

Peer review: Many (but not all!) scholarly journals are peer reviewed. Before an article is published in a peer-reviewed journal, it is evaluated by a group of the author's peers—fellow experts in a particular field of study. The peer review process helps to maintain a high standard of research and scholarship.

When should I use scholarly journals in my research?
Scholarly journals are one of the best sources of up-to-date, authoritative information in any academic field. You should aim to use scholarly sources whenever possible in your research.

How can I find scholarly articles?
You can find articles on specific topics by searching in databases. Databases tell you what has been published on certain subjects; they might have full text articles, or just an abstract (summary) and reference (citation) for you to find the article elsewhere. Using the U of L Library's website, look under the Databases by Subject tab to select a database in your subject area. Note: you will NOT find specific journal articles by title in the Library Catalogue; however, you may using Summon (the single search box on the Library's home page).

What is Peer Review?

What is peer review?

Many (but not all!) scholarly journals are peer reviewed. In this system, journal article are reviewed by several other researchers in the field and must pass certain criteria before being accepted for publication. This process helps to maintain a high standard of research and scholarship.

Are all journals peer reviewed?

No, not all scholarly journals are peer reviewed. Even within a peer reviewed journal, certain types of articles (for example, book reviews) may not be subject to the peer-review process.

How can I determine whether a particular journal is peer reviewed?

The editorial information for a journal - such as the instruction to authors – should say whether it undergoes a peer review process. This should be able to be found on a journal's web site. We also subscribe to a database called Ulrich's which classifies whether journals are refereed (aka peer reviewed) or not. See this page to learn more about scholarly materials and peer review; this page also has more information on how to check whether a journal is peer reviewed.

Determining Whether a Journal is Peer Reviewed

How can I determine whether a particular journal is peer reviewed?

Most databases will allow you to limit your search to peer reviewed articles. You will usually see this option on the database's advanced search page.

You can look the journal up in Ulrich's Serials Directory to check its publication information and find out whether it's peer reviewed.

What is UlrichsWeb.com?

UlrichsWeb.com is a database that contains authoritative information about more than 300,000 periodicals. It includes bibliographic and publisher information for peer reviewed journals, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletter, etc.

How do I look up a journal in Ulrich's Serials Directory?

To determine whether a particular journal is peer reviewed, enter the title of the journal in the search bar on the Ulrich's Web homepage: