Scholarly journals are written by academics or experts in a particular field or discipline to communicate with other academics or experts in that field or discipline. These journals share ideas and theories, research findings, and more while helping readers stay current on developments in that field or discipline. Scholarly journals are publications whose content is:
Written by academics or experts in a particular field or discipline Targeted primarily to academic audiences or other experts in a particular field or discipline Academically focused on research including original research, methodology, theory, and/or experimentation Usually published by a professional association or academic press Cited properly in the form of a bibliography or footnotes and in-text citations Professional in appearance with no spelling or grammatical errors, advertisements, or unrelated images You may come across or be asked to find a journal that is referred to as "academic". In these cases, it is often safe to assume that "academic" and "scholarly" are interchangeable, but you should always ask your instructor for clarification and confirmation when finding sources labeled "academic" rather than "scholarly".