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EDUC 451 Infant & Toddler

Identifying scholarly, peer reviewed journals

What is a scholarly journal?

Your instructor has asked you to find an article in a scholarly (or professional or refereed or peer-reviewed) journal. Scholarly journals differ from popular magazines and trade journals/magazines in a number of ways. (See "Comparison Chart" below.) A primary difference between scholarly journals and other types of journals and magazines is that articles in these journals undergo a "peer review" process before they are published. What does this mean?

  • Peer review is the process by which an author's peers, recognized researchers in the field, read and evaluate a paper (article) submitted for publication and recommend whether the paper should be published, revised, or rejected.
  • Peer review is a widely accepted indicator of quality scholarship in a discipline or field. Articles accepted for publication through a peer review process meet the discipline's expected standards of expertise.
  • Peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals are scholarly journals that only publish articles that have passed through this review process.

The following characteristics can help you distinguish between these and two other types of periodicals: popular magazines and trade publications. If in doubt, ask your teacher or a librarian for assistance.

Comparing Characteristics of Journals/Magazines

 

CRITERIA

 SCHOLARLY JOURNALS POPULAR MAGAZINES TRADE PUBLICATIONS
AUTHOR Expert (scholar, professor, researcher, etc.) in field covered. Author is always named. Journalist; nonprofessional or layperson. Sometimes author is not named. Business or industry representative. Sometimes author is not named.
NOTES Usually includes notes and/or bibliographic references. Few or no notes or bibliographic references. Few or no notes or bibliographic references.
CONTENTS News and research (methodology, theory) from the field. Current events; general interest. Business or industry information (trends, products, techniques).
STYLE Written for experts using technical language. Journalistic; written for nonprofessional or layperson. Written for people in the business or industry using technical language.
AUDIENCE Scholars or researchers in the field. General public. People in the business or industry.
REVIEW Usually reviewed by peer scholars (referees) not employed by the journal. Reviewed by one or more editors employed by the magazine. Reviewed by one or more editors employed by the magazine.
APPEARANCE Plain; mostly print, sometimes with black and white figures, tables, graphs and/or charts. Glossy, with many pictures in color. Glossy, with many pictures in color.
ADS Few or none; if any, usually for books or other professional materials. Many, often in color. Some, often in color.
FREQUENCY Usually monthly or quarterly. Usually weekly or monthly. Usually weekly or monthly.
EXAMPLES Developmental Psychology (published by the American Psychological Association). Rolling Stone (commercially published).

Monitor on Psychology (published by the American Psychological Association

 

Finding articles in scholarly/peer-reviewed journals

Many of the Library's article databases allow you to limit the search results to peer-reviewed or scholarly articles by:

  • do an Articles (Quick Search) in the search bar at the top of this page. Look for articles tagged as peer-reviewed.
  • checking the box "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" under limit or refine search.
  • clicking on the tab "Scholarly Journals" or "Academic Journals" while viewing results of a search.

Keep in mind, even though a particular journal is peer reviewed, an individual item in that journal may not be. Some article types, e.g. news items, comments, editorials, may not have gone through the peer review process. Scholarly articles are generally several pages long.

From SDSU Libraries http://library.sdsu.edu/research-services/research-help/peer-reviewed-articles

What Are Empirical Articles?

As a student at the University of La Verne, faculty may instruct you to read and analyze empirical articles when writing a research paper, a senior or master's project, or a doctoral dissertation. How can you recognize an empirical article in an academic discipline? An empirical research article is an article which reports research based on actual observations or experiments. The research may use quantitative research methods, which generate numerical data and seek to establish causal relationships between two or more variables.(1) Empirical research articles may use qualitative research methods, which objectively and critically analyze behaviors, beliefs, feelings, or values with few or no numerical data available for analysis.(2)

How can I determine if I have found an empirical article?

When looking at an article or the abstract of an article, here are some guidelines to use to decide if an article is an empirical article.

  • Is the article published in an academic, scholarly, or professional journal? Popular magazines such as Business Week or Newsweek do not publish empirical research articles; academic journals such as Business Communication Quarterly or Journal of Psychology may publish empirical articles. Some professional journals, such as JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association publish empirical research. Other professional journals, such as Coach & Athletic Director publish articles of professional interest, but they do not publish research articles.
  • Does the abstract of the article mention a study, an observation, an analysis or a number of participants or subjects? Was data collected, a survey or questionnaire administered, an assessment or measurement used, an interview conducted? All of these terms indicate possible methodologies used in empirical research.
  • Empirical articles normally contain these sections:
    1. Introduction-The introduction provides a very brief summary of the research.
    2. Methodology-The method section describes how the research was conducted, including who the participants were, the design of the study, what the participants did, and what measures were used.
    3. Results-The results section describes the outcomes of the measures of the study.
    4. Discussion-The discussion section contains the interpretations and implications of the study.
    5. Conclusion-
    6. References-A reference section contains information about the articles and books cited in the report and should be substantial.
    The sections may be combined, and may have different headings or no headings at all; however, the information that would fall within these sections should be present in an empirical article.
  • How long is the article? An empirical article is usually substantial; it is normally seven or more pages long.

When in doubt if an article is an empirical research article, share the article citation and abstract with your professor or a librarian so that we can help you become better at recognizing the differences between empirical research and other types of scholarly articles.

How can I search for empirical research articles using the electronic databases available through Wilson Library?

  • A quick and somewhat superficial way to look for empirical research is to type your search terms into the database's search boxes, then type STUDY OR STUDIES in the final search box to look for studies on your topic area. Be certain to use the ability to limit your search to scholarly/professional journals if that is available on the database. Evaluate the results of your search using the guidelines above to determine if any of the articles are empirical research articles.
  • In EbscoHost databases, such as Education Source, on the Advanced Search page you should see a PUBLICATION TYPE field; highlight the appropriate entry. Empirical research may not be the term used; look for a term that may be a synonym for empirical research. ERIC uses REPORTS-RESEARCH. Also find the field for INTENDED AUDIENCE and highlight RESEARCHER. PsycArticles and Psycinfo include a field for METHODOLOGY where you can highlight EMPIRICAL STUDY. National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts has a field for DOCUMENT TYPE; highlight STUDIES/RESEARCH REPORTS. Then evaluate the articles you find using the guidelines above to determine if an article is empirical.
  • In ProQuest databases, such as ProQuest Psychology Journals, on the Advanced Search page look under MORE SEARCH OPTIONS and click on the pull down menu for DOCUMENT TYPE and highlight an appropriate type, such as REPORT or EVIDENCE BASED. Also look for the SOURCE TYPE field and highlight SCHOLARLY JOURNALS. Evaluate the search results using the guidelines to determine if an article is empirical.
  • Pub Med Central, Sage Premier, Science Direct, Wiley Interscience, and Wiley Interscience Humanities and Social Sciences consist of scholarly and professional journals which publish primarily empirical articles. After conducting a subject search in these databases, evaluate the items you find by using the guidelines above for deciding if an article is empirical.
  1. "Quantitative research" A Dictionary of Nursing. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. University of La Verne. 25 August 2009
  2. "Qualitative analysis" A Dictionary of Public Health. Ed. John M. Last, Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. University of La Verne. 25 August 2009