Journal articles

An academic or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a

particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent
forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and discussion of research. They are usually peer-reviewed or
refereed. Content typically takes the form of articles presenting original research, review articles,
and book reviews. The purpose of an academic journal, according to Henry Oldenburg (the first
editor of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society), is to give researchers a venue to "impart
their knowledge to one another, and contribute what they can to the Grand design of improving
natural knowledge, and perfecting all Philosophical Arts, and Sciences.

Types of Journals

 Academic/scholarly journals.
 Trade journals.
 Current affairs/opinion magazines.
 Popular magazines.
 Newspapers.

How to Identify a Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed Journal Article

Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles will have most of the characteristics listed below. Ask yourself
these questions and look at the article to check if if the way it looks and is written indicates it is a
reliable, accurate source:

Look for clues that indicate the author(s) is a scholar/researcher:

   Do the author(s) have advanced degrees and/or credentials, like Ph.D. or

M.D.?
1. Is it written by a  Does the author(s) have an affiliation or association? For example, do
scholar? they work at a university, hospital, or similar knowledge-based
organization?

Check if the purpose of the article is to provide original research that further our

understanding about a topic:
 
 Is the scope and topic narrowly defined with a theoretical and/or
technical focus (scholarly), centered on professional practice (trade), or
2. What is it about?
broad and general (popular)?
Who's the intended
 Is the content research-based and analytical with the aim of creating new
audience?
knowledge? Or is the intention to merely persuade, entertain, inform, or
report?

  Look at the length, formatting, and headings/sections inside the article:

3. How is it  Does it have a clear structure that indicates a scientific research study?
structured? For example, an abstract followed by headings/sections indicating the
study's purpose, design, results and discussion of findings?
  Is it lengthy (more than 5 pages)?
 In general, the less structured it is the more it is likely NOT a scholarly
source.

Review the language, tone, and point of view of the article:

 Is the language formal and technical (indicating a scholarly, peer-reviewed

source), professional jargon (indicating a trade source), or plain and
  simple (indicating popular source)?
 Would the general public be able to understand the article, or does it
4. How is it written? require a higher level of education and knowledge?
 A scholarly, peer-reviewed article will have an objective point of view and
logical, argumentative tone with many citations to published research
that support its claims.

Look for clues that tell you the article is published inside of an academic/scholarly
journal:

 Go to the website or description and read the "About" or "Aims and

  Scope" sections. Is the primary purpose to publish new knowledge and
original research (scholarly), provide news and information relevant to
5. What's the professional practice (trade), or entertain, persuade, and inform
publication type? (popular)?
 Is the visual appearance of the website plain, with minimal advertising
and colour? Or is it colourful and flashy with a lot of graphics and
advertisements?

Conference papers

A conference proceeding is the published record of a conference, congress, symposium, or other

meeting sponsored by a society or association, usually but not necessarily including abstracts
or reports of papers presented by the participants. When the entire text of the papers presented is
included, the result is called transactions. 

The papers submitted to a conference are usually reviewed during a specific period and authors
receive their acceptance or rejection letters at the same time. Conference papers are usually short
and concise with a limit on the number of pages allowed. For journal papers, on the other hand, the
amount of time needed for publishing is very flexible. If your paper is promising but there are edits
required, there could be a lot of back and forth between you and your editor until your paper is
ready to be published. The revision process for a journal paper undergoes a very meticulous peer-
review process, far more detailed than conference revisions, that takes a very long period of time.
For some journals, the revision period may not even be fixed, but open until the paper is ready.

What makes a good conference paper?

The qualities that make any piece of research-based writing good–clarity, substance, insight, and
stylistic flair–all apply here. The main difference is that you prepare a conference paper for oral
presentation.

In 10–15 minutes, you will not be able to present everything you know about your topic. You will not
have time to present extensive background material, and you absolutely shouldn’t give a scholarly
literature review (yawn!); simply present your best ideas and back them up. You want to make a
clear, engaging argument illustrated by a few choice points of evidence.

Because the conference paper is an oral medium, your audience will not have the luxury of reading
your prepared text. Here are pointers that follow from that realization:

 Write with your ear. When you complete a draft, read it aloud. Eliminate awkward passages.
 Make transitions clear. It is almost impossible to be too obvious.
 Avoid lengthy quotations. They strain listeners’ attention span and disrupt your argument’s
flow. If you absolutely must refer to a long passage, consider providing it to listeners on a
handout or an overhead.
 Think about ways to engage the audience. It’s hard to listen to someone who stands stock
still, nose in paper, reading in a hushed monotone.
 Be careful about beating up on other scholars. Be generous, even in disagreement.
 Anticipate questions and criticism. Address likely concerns in your paper, or at least be ready
to talk about them in a Q&A period. Look forward to learning from your interlocutors.
 Include a bibliography (Works Cited list) to reference when answering questions.

Book and Book Chapters

Books are a collection of chapters on a similar subject from different authors compiled by an editor.
The editor has the responsibility for gathering the chapters, editing them, and working with the
press. As a result, the process can be quite time intensive for the editor particularly editing the
individual chapters. Edited books are evaluated based on the quality of the press, quality of the
chapters, and the stature of the contributing authors.

A book chapter is a chapter inside of a larger volume. Typically, each chapter is written by a different
group of authors. Two types of book chapters are commonly found:  edited and refereed. Edited
book chapters are part of a collection gathered and reviewed by an editor around a specific topic.
These chapters are rarely considered to be peer reviewed and their quality is evaluated based on the
stature of the press publishing the book, the editor, and other contributors. Refereed book chapters
appear in handbooks (i.e. research handbook) and have been reviewed by peer reviewers
(sometimes these are blind reviews, sometimes not). A refereed chapter is evaluated largely based
on the quality of the publication and the citation record of the chapter.