Why should I use academic journals for research?
Answer
There are a lot of ways to evaluate the information that we use to support our ideas in college research, but one of the ways is to look for types of sources that are made for an academic or scholarly audience. One of the most valued types of research sources are academic journals for a few reasons:
- Academic journals are written by scholars for scholars. The authors of these articles have some authority in the field and have studied a topic extensively before publishing. Many scholars devote their entire careers to a narrow focus of study. They also write with an academic audience in mind, so some background knowledge is assumed.
- Academic journals are viewed as having a high level of credibility. These journals usually use a peer review process that is designed to ensure that articles meet high standards for the way the research is conducted and evaluated.
- Academic journals publish scholarly research on many different disciplines. You'll find that academic journals can focus on very specific disciplines and that the articles in these journals will be focused on extremely specific topics. This is because these publications are attempting to add new knowledge to a field, so the work will constantly be building on previous work, like an ongoing conversation.
You may not be able to find many academic articles that provide background information on your topic, this is generally the role of textbooks and reference books. It can be helpful to have read background information on your topic before looking at scholarly articles.
Take a look at the Evaluating Sources page of our Research 101 guide for more information on evaluating sources, including academic journals.