12.11: Scholarly Periodicals (aka "Journals")

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Characteristics that help you identify a periodical as scholarly:

Often contain lengthy articles (five to fifty pages)
Generally confine the subject matter to a single, very specific aspect of a subject area (e.g., music theory, European political science, film studies, language development)
Contain articles with footnotes or cited reference pages. The cited references allow the reader to consult the same material that the author used in his/her research
Are intended for an academic or scholarly audience
Use technical or specialized vocabulary
Publish articles written by academics, specialists or researchers in the field (as opposed to articles written by journalists reporting on or synthesizing research)
Often publish reviews of the literature
Often include articles with charts or tables: news photos and other types of graphics are not often used, save in the case of articles on visual subjects, such as art, design or architecture
Are often produced under the editorial supervision of a professional association (e.g., Journal of the American Medical Association) or by a scholarly press (e.g., Elsevier, Pergamon)
Contain little or no advertising
Are issued less frequently than popular or trade periodicals

Again, hundreds of databases help the searcher locate articles in scholarly periodicals. A few of the most valuable include Academic Search Premier, Google Scholar, JSTOR, and Web of Science. Also, an individual scholar may provide links to the articles s/he has produced on a personal or institutional website, and the journals themselves may offer a searchable archive, although there is almost always a charge involved in getting access to a specific article from the journal’s own archive.