Using Scholarly Journals as Sources in Academic Papers

More often than not, you will be expected to use articles from scholarly journals (sometimes referred to as peer-reviewed or refereed journals) as sources for research papers. Here are some characteristics of scholarly journal articles that make them highly useful as sources for academic papers:

• They're written by and for specialists in a particular field
• Articles must go through a peer review process before they're accepted for publication
• This is where original research, or new knowledge, is published for the first time
• These articles tend to have a narrower focus and more analysis of the topic than those in other types of publications
• There are usually cited references or footnotes at the end of research articles

A common way to find journal articles on your topic is to search article indexes.  These can be printed indexes or online databases.  Some provide the full text of articles; some provide just citations and abstracts. 

Here are just a few examples of databases that index articles in scholarly journals (these are available to JHU users only):

Applied Science and Technology Abstracts	MLA International Bibliography
EconLit	PsycINFO

For more discipline-specific article databases, consult the lists of databases by subject.