This guide is primarily for students who need to find scholarly journal articles for their assignments. It explains what scholarly journal articles are, and outlines how to search for them in the Library Catalogue and Databases.
Scholarly journal articles are written by experts in a particular field of study. Their purpose is to keep others interested in the field up to date with the most recent research and findings. More so than books, scholarly journal articles are where to turn if you wish to discover the recent thinking for a specific discipline.
Journal articles are published in journals, essentially magazines, but for an academic audience. A journal will be published multiple times per year and is organised by volumes (and sometimes issues).
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What are peer reviewed articles? Peer reviewed articles, also known as refereed articles, are scholarly journal articles that have been reviewed and edited by experts in that field before being accepted for publishing. Usually the author is unknown to the reviewer and so the article is accepted solely on its merit and not on the reputation of the author. Thus it is more likely to be a highly rigorous and credible article. |
Scholarly articles are excellent sources of information for your assignments because they provide:
Most scholarly journal articles have the the following features:
