What is the difference between a scientific, scholarly, academic, and peer-reviewed journal?
Answer
In most health-related fields, “scientific journals” and “academic (or scholarly) journals” are often the same thing. Scientific journals are a subset of academic journals that publish peer-reviewed research studies designed to support evidence-based decision-making. These are the types of sources used to inform best practices, guidelines, and interventions.
Scientific (peer-reviewed) journal articles typically include:
- Original research or systematic reviews
- A clear methodology (how the study was conducted)
- Results and data analysis
- A discussion of how findings contribute to current evidence
- References to prior research
So if you are seeing peer-reviewed academic journals in library databases, you are very likely already looking at appropriate scientific evidence.