CEVAP:

1. Level of detail: A scholarly journal should provide you with more detail than the general information contained in a newspaper or magazine article.

2. Level of discourse: Journal articles are written in technical language. Nonscholarly resources are written for a general audience.

3. Structure: Most journal articles contain an abstract with the paper’s thesis, an introduction, a literature review, and a discussion of the methods used to draw conclusions. Sources of information will be cited. In general, you will not find an abstract or a literature review (direct references to other scholarly studies) in a nonscholarly publication.

4. Explanation of methodology: Journal articles explain the methods used to analyze evidence and/or data and indicate which resources were used to draw conclusions.

5. Footnotes and endnotes: Most journal articles that are suitable for literature review in the field of International Relations reviews contain footnotes or endnotes.

6. Bibliography: Scholarly journal articles contain a bibliography or reference list. Magazines and newspapers rarely do. Trade publications seldom contain them.

7. Date of publication: Scholarly journals are usually published monthly, quarterly, or biannually and usually have a volume or issue number coinciding with the time of year released. Newspapers and magazines are usually published daily, weekly, or monthly.