This lesson will help you to:
- find relevant information in journal articles; and
- evaluate the usefulness of sources for your research needs.
This will help you with these learning outcomes:
- W3. Can write essays with a structure that is generally appropriate and clear, using a variety of devices to create an overall sense of coherence and cohesion
- R1. Can identify opinions, main points, summaries, supporting information and clearly signalled lines of argument in somewhat complex texts
- R4. Can recognise examples, cause/effect relationships, etc, in more complex texts
An academic journal is a scholarly publication containing a number of articles written by researchers such as masters/PhD students and academic staff at universities, and other experts. Articles are usually written to share outcomes of research in a specific discipline or field of study, or to provide a description of the current situation in a particular area, often with suggestions for future action. The audience for academic journals is usually researchers, students, experts or people working in that field or area.
Most journal articles:
- focus on current developments in the discipline or field of study.
- are reviewed by at least two other expert reviewers before they are published (they are peer-reviewed).
- cite other works and have a list of references.
Each journal is put together by an editor, usually a senior academic or respected professional, who manages the process of receiving articles, sending them for review and approving them for publication. Articles are often rejected by editors or reviewers, and the authors may have to make many changes to their articles during review. It can take 1-2 years to get an article published.
Journals are published on a regular basis, usually 2-6 times a year. Each copy may also have an issue number and a group of issues makes a volume, usually prepared in one year.
(Adapted from University of Victoria Library, 2019)
Journal Activity
Reading journal articles
Reflect on the following questions. Add a new entry to your journal and document your responses.
- How many journal articles have you added to your AE4 Research tracker? See suggestions for feedback for these questions in Possible procedure above.
- How do you feel about reading journal articles?
- Do you know any strategies for making the reading easier or more manageable?
- Why is it important to make sure a source is relevant? How can we do this?
- Apart from relevance, what other criteria might be important when selecting suitable articles for research?
TIP: The Directory of Open Access Journals is a website that hosts a community-curated list of open access to high quality, peer-reviewed journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provides links to free articles from around the world (not all are in English). First select ‘Read online’ which takes you to the abstract. You can then select the to read online or download as a PDF.
