Scholarly journals publish articles written by academic experts for other scholars, students and others familiar with the language of that academic discipline. Most scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, which means that articles are reviewed by a panel of scholarly experts prior to being accepted.
Many libraries have put together great guides explaining what scholarly and peer-reviewed journals are and how you can recognize them. Some guides are linked below.
The Library Search, as well as some of the library’s databases, such as those in ProQuest and EBSCO, have features to help you identify whether an article is in a scholarly, academic, or peer-reviewed journal.
Other types of literature are valuable and useful even though they are not peer-reviewed. For example, technical reports such as those found in DTIC or RAND reports or Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS) can also provide useful research materials.
