Interactive tutorial
Following is a checklist of some typical qualities of a scholarly journal article:
- Is there an abstract or summary at the beginning of the article?
- Does the article include a bibliography?
- Are there in-text citations (e.g., parenthetical references, endnotes, or footnotes)?
- Does the author use specialized language, relevant to the subject area?
- What is the author's affiliation or credentials (e.g., is it with a college, university, or research organization)?
- Who is the audience of the article? Is it written for fellow scholars in the field, for practitioners, or for a general/popular audience?
- How many pages is the article? Is it substantial in length?
- What kind of images does it contain? Scholarly journals tend to have few, if any images, but often contain charts, graphs, or data tables.
- Does the journal title refer to an academic discipline or specialized field of study? Often the title will include words such as journal, research, or review.
CONTENT ADAPTED FROM "RESEARCH & CITATION HELP," COLBY COLLEGE LIBRARIES
button available from most databases to locate the entire article online.
