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Physics & Astronomy: Journal Basics

Resources to help you get started with your research in physics and astronomy.

Is It a Scholarly Journal?

Journals and Magazines This guide details the characteristics of each category.

Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory: Entries include information about whether the journal or magazine is a scholarly journal, consumer magazine, etc.

Paper journals: Frequently include instruction for authors in the front or back of the journal.  Some instructions will use the phrase "peer reviewed."  Others will say that manuscripts are sent for blind review, reviewed by a committee, or anonymously reviewed.

Research Databases:  Some allow you to limit your search to scholarly journals.  

Citing Sources

Need help citing your sources? You'll find helpful information on the Citation Resources page. There, you will find links to:

  • Citation Style Guides;
  • Online Style Manuals;
  • and Citation Generation and Management Software.

Parts of a scholarly journal article

This video is from Bowman Library at Menlo College.

Popular vs. Scholarly

Created by Suffolk County Community College, sunysuffolk.edu .

Peer Review in 3 Minutes

This video is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license. It is available at https://youtu.be/rOCQZ7QnoN0