Criminal Justice

A scholarly journal is generally written by researchers to report the results of their research. Most library databases allow you to filter or narrow your results to scholarly articles. Common characteristics of a scholarly article are:

1.  Author & Audience - Scholarly articles are written by experts for experts.
2. Purpose - Scholarly articles are written to share research findings, theories, or analysis with other researchers.
3. Publisher - Universities, academic presses, and professional organizations publish scholarly articles.
4. Format - Scholarly articles often have:
   1. Technical or specialized language
   2. Citations or references
   3. Graphs and charts

What's the difference?

"Scholarly" and "peer-reviewed" are not synonyms. All peer-reviewed articles are considered scholarly, but not all scholarly articles are peer reviewed.

Check if an article is peer reviewed by using the Ulrichsweb database. 

Login to the database using the link below and search the journal title for the publishing information. Tip: Refereed and peer reviewed are synonyms.