Scholarly journals, sometimes called academic or professional journals, are specialized periodicals that publish articles for study and research. They are written for the academic audience--scholars, professors, and students --in a particular subject area. Many of them are published by universities or scholarly organizations. You won't find these periodicals on the magazine display in stores!
Scholarly journals are periodicals (like magazines and newspapers) because they have new issues appearing at regular intervals, but usually only 3 or 4 times a year. That's why you often see words like "winter 2013" in a listing of journal articles.
Many scholarly journals have a system of peer review. This means that before articles are published, they must first be reviewed by a group of scholars who make sure that the article meets high standards for study and research in the subject area.
Not all scholarly journals have the actual word journal in their title. So how do you know which ones are actual scholarly journals? Use this quick guide called "Magazines vs.Scholarly Journals".
Some databases will have the full text of the entire article available within the database, others will only have a citation for the article. When there is only a citation available, you will see a yellow find it button. This button will give you options for getting a full text version of the article. If we have access to it in another database it will be linked there.
If it says "Not Available Online" then look for "Check Availability in SU Catalog"; if you see that then we may have a hardcopy version on the shelf in the library.
If you don't have either of those options then you can request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL)! There are loads of ways to get a copy of an article you are interested in.