Criminology

What Are Academic/Scholarly Journals and Articles?

• Journals that provide good quality research articles
• Journals that are listed higher on the Scimago Journal Rank
• Articles are normally peer reviewed (experts in the profession have reviewed the research and agree that its findings are accurate and contributes to the field)
• Articles typically have the following information available in the abstract: background, research methods, results, and conclusions
• Articles will have an extensive bibliography showing where the writer got their information
• Articles that have been cited multiple times by others suggest strong research

What Are Professional Journals and Articles?

• Journals include recent issues relevant to a particular profession
• Articles are short and not normally in depth compared to academic articles
• Articles do not normally have an abstract or decent bibliography
• Useful for understanding recent issues, not so much for quality research

Tips for Searching for Reliable Journals and Articles

• When looking for journal articles, it is best to use the library rather than Google. This is because researchers from the university and librarians have located the most reliable academic/scholarly journals related to a particular field.
• Remember: you will have to play around with the keywords/short phrases to find the right combination. Use one keyword/short phrase per line in the search box (the library search doesn't work like the Google search).