Scholarly Articles

How can you tell if a journal article is scholarly?

There are several ways to tell.  Some database search engines (like EBSCO's) allow you to limit your searches to peer reviewed results by checking a box.  Another way is to look at who publishes the journal; often, journals are published by a university press like Johns Hopkins, Duke, or Oxford.  If so, the journal and articles in it are scholarly and peer reviewed.  Another way to decide is to look at the front matter in each journal issue (in print or on the journal website).  Often journals will have editorial policies and submission guidelines that tell you whether or not a journal is scholarly.

How are scholarly journal articles different from regular articles?

Scholarly articles always go through a process of blind submission and peer review.  This means that all articles are judged solely on the quality of content and are published only if other experts in a given field decide that the article contributes something worthwhile.  If you are reading an article in a peer-reviewed journal, you can be assured that it's already been looked at by multiple experts, most of whom are established scholars.

Is there a way to tell which journals are better than others?

There are several options you have.  You can search the journal title inWorldCat and see how many libraries worldwide access it.  The more libraries that access it, the more likely the journal is important.  Other journals advertise their impact factor, which is a measure of how often the journal is cited.  Otherwise, ask your professors which journals they think are most important.

What are the features of scholarly journal articles?

• • Often directed toward a narrow audience that has specific research interests.
  • Always have information cited in text or in footnotes.
  • Provide extensive bibliographies and overviews of existing research.

Remember, scholarly journal articles are just one of many kinds of articles out there.  If you still have questions, ask a librarian or your professor.

These resources are especially useful if you find yourself searching for things on sites not accessed through the library.

The Web vs. Library Databases – A comparison 
A guide to understanding and evaluating the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly resources

Is it Scholarly? Tips for critically evaluating your information resources.

When you search the library's website or one of the databases below you are searching hundreds of different journals for articles that match the search terms you have chosen to use.

However, sometimes you may wish to find a specific article, or browse a specific journal. You can do this using Journal Finder.

Search For and Browse a Journal

To search for a specific Journal simply type in the name or part of the name in the search box below "search for a journal."

Your results should look something like this

You will notice that there are multiple links to access one journal, that is because we have access to this journal through multiple databases. What you need to pay attention to are the dates preceding the links. These dates indicate coverage. So for example if you you wanted to browse current issues of PMLA shown above you would want to click on the last link for "Modern Language Association Journals," which covers 2002 to the present. If you wanted to browse older issues you would instead click the link for "JSTOR Early Journal Content" which covers 1889-1922. 

After decide which link you want to click based on the coverage dates you will be taken to a page that looks something like this.

Typically, there will be years which you can expand or minimize and then individual volumes and issues which you can then click on and view the individual articles in a given issue or volume of a journal. 

Finding a specific Article

To find a specific article simply scroll down the journal finder page to "search for an article" and search using the title of the article, the title of the journal, and the year of publication.

 

 

JSTOR
Provides a full text archive of academic journals and books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. The most recent three to five years of a journal are usually not included.

Project Muse
Provides full-text access to books and journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Scopus (Elsevier)
Provides citations and abstracts to peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedings in all major disciplines. Provides information on citing and cited references for each article.

MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Provides citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations on all aspects of literature, language and linguistics, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, and folklore. International in scope; coverage from 1926 to the present. Includes access to the MLA Directory of Periodicals.

America: History and Life (EBSCO)
Indexes the literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes citations for journal and magazine articles, book reviews, and dissertations. Abstracts of journal articles are included together with selected full-text. Indexing goes back to 1964.

PsycINFO (ProQuest)  Tutorial
Provides abstracts and indexing to journals, books, book chapters, technical reports and dissertations in all areas of psychology. This database is produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). International in scope; coverage is from 1887 to the present.

Web of Science (Clarivate)  Tutorial
Provides access to the Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Conference Proceeding Citation Index, Book Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index, Current Chemical Reactions, and Index Chemicus. Search for scholarly articles in any discipline, or for articles that cite a known author or work. Coverage varies.