What is a scholarly or academic journal?

Articles in "scholarly" journals, also known as "academic" journals, are distinguished from those in mass-media magazines (Maclean's, Chatelaine, Newsweek) by the following characteristics:

• they report on or review original research, experimentation, or in-depth analysis
• their authors are scholars (researchers, experts) in a particular field of study, and are identified as such
• they are formal in writing style and format, aimed at a specialized, academic audience and use specialized language
• articles tend to be lengthy and usually consist of a number of distinct sections such as: abstract (a short summary of the article); introduction and statement of the problem; literature review; methodology; data collection; analysis; conclusions and recommendations for further research
• sources are cited with footnotes or a bibliography at the end of the article
• they contain little, if any advertising
• Examples: American Sociological Review; Brain and Cognition; British Journal of Aesthetics
• to verify whether a journal is scholarly you can also look up the journal in Ulrichsweb.com

Most, though not all scholarly journals are peer reviewed.