What is a Scholarly Journal?

This guide will help you distinguish between scholarly journals, magazines, and trade
publications - both print and online - and will help you identify and evaluate these types
of sources.

Definitions
Scholarly Journals, Magazines, and Trade
Publications
Finding Scholarly Journals at SFU
Verifying Journal Types with Ulrichs
How to Critically Evaluate Sources
Additional Information and Resources


Definitions
Serials
o Is the broad term for any publication issued periodically, including newspapers, journals,
magazines, annuals, numbered monographic series and the proceedings, transactions
and memoirs of societies.
Periodicals
o All periodicals are serials, but are publications issued at regular intervals (i.e. daily,
weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.) and are intended to continue indefinitely
o Include newspapers, magazines, journals, and trade publications
Scholarly journal
o Also called academic journal or very often peer-reviewed journal. Includes original
research articles, written by researchers and experts in a particular academic discipline.
Peer-reviewed journal
o Also known as scholarly journal, or academic journal, or refereed journal. Publishes only
original research articles that are subjected to a rigorous evaluation through the peer-
review process.
o The majority of scholarly journals go through the peer-review process, although there
are some that are scholarly and non-peer reviewed, such as Journal of financial
econometrics.
Peer-review process
o Also known as the referee process
o An editorial board asks subject experts to review and evaluate submitted articles before
accepting them for publication in a scholarly journal
o Submissions are evaluated using criteria including the excellence, novelty and
significance of the research or ideas
o Scholarly journals use this process to protect and maintain the quality of material they
publish
o Members of the editorial board are listed near the beginning of each journal issue
Primary sources
o Provide firsthand information in the original words of the creator or eye witness
o Include creative works, for example: poetry, drama, novels, music, art, films
o Include original documents, for example: interviews, diaries, speeches, letters, minutes,
film footage, oral histoires, manuscripts
o Include reports of original research and ideas, for example: statistical data, case
studies, conference papers, technical reports and research papers published in
scholarly journals
o For more information, see Primary vs. Secondary Sources in Humanities and in
Sciences, from the BMCC Library.
Secondary Sources
o Provide information reviewing, evaluating, analyzing or interpreting primary sources
o Include criticism and interpretation of creative works
o Include interpretations of original documents, for example: biographies, historical
analyses, textbooks and encyclopedia articles
o Include summaries and reviews of scholarly findings, for example review articles,
textbooks, encyclopedia articles and both scholarly journal and popular magazine
articles
Review articles
o Are secondary sources that report and summarize other authors' works on a given
subject
o Are a useful overview tool; they provide a summary of recent research on a particular
subject
o Review articles are not considered research articles
Research Articles
o Articles describing new research or ideas
o Written in a formal manner that includes background information, methods used,
results/interpretation and significance
Open Access (OA) Journals
o Journals that are freely available online - this term specifically refers to free scholarly
journals
o Examples: Northwest Journal of Linguistics, Current Issues in Education


Prof Dr P V Senthiil
HEAD/MECH