UNT Dallas Library: CJUS 2100 Crime and Justice in the United States: Journals

How to Search for a Publication

The video will demonstrate how to use the Ebsco EDS full-text finder to search for a particular journal publication.

Academic Journals

Academic journals are also known as peer-reviewed journals.

Peer review is a process that research articles and some literature reviews go through before being published.
The process is used to assess the quality of a submitted manuscript.
Independent experts/researchers within the field review the submitted manuscripts for originality, validity, and significance.
If a journal is rejected for publication the reviewers (also known as referees) will generally provide notes to the author(s).
The authors would need to address the issues presented in the notes prior to resubmitting the manuscript for a revaluation.
A common peer-review type is known as double-blind peer review. In this type neither the author(s) or reviewers known the identities of each other.
You may find out if and what type of peer-review process is being used by a particular journal by going to the journal's website submission guidelines page. For example here is the submission guideline page for Child Development.

Please note that not all articles published in peer-reviewed journals are peer-reviewed. Only empirical or theoretical research studies and some literature reviews (e.g. meta-analysis) are peer-reviewed.

How to Identify a Peer Review Article

Modern Empirical and Theoretical research studies are organized and consist of similar sections:
- Introduction
  - Background
  - Literature Review
  - Research Questions
- Methodology (also Methods, or Methods and Materials)
  - Participants
  - Steps followed by the researchers
- Results
  - Raw data is presented in the form of graphs, tables, or charts
- Discussion
  - Results interpreted in light of the Research Questions
  - Discusses how findings affect the current understanding of the field
  - Limitations of the study
  - Area for future research
- References
  - Full reference of all papers cited within the text, appendices, figures, or tables

Criminal Justice Academic Journals

Below is a list of important academic journals that report research related to Child Development and Family Studies. These journals can be searched individually or found through a search using the Ebsco EDS.

Trade Journals

Trade journals are publications that are intended for a particular trade group or industry. These publications often report on recent research and present practical articles intended for practitioners in the field. They also present information on equipment. legislation. and news related to that field. Trade journals are not considered peer-reviewed journals.

Below is a list of Trade journals:

Popular Publications

Popular publications include both newspapers and magazines. Unlike academic journals that publish articles for a limited expert audience, newspapers and magazines are intended for a wide general audience. This type of literature is important to read in order to remain aware of trends within society that may affect your field. Popular publications may also provide ideas for future research.

Newspapers are published daily or weekly and feature short articles, while magazines are generally published weekly or monthly and include longer articles. Rarely do the articles published in popular publications include detailed references.

Below is a list of important newspapers and magazines that you should be aware of.: