Skip to Main Content

What are Scholarly Journal Articles?: Website Article vs. Scholarly Journal Article

If you've never heard of scholarly journals or scholarly journal articles before, that's O.K.! You are in the right place to get up to speed on them.

 

Colorful, decorative horizontal line.

 

- Compare a Website Article and a Scholarly Journal Article on the Same Topic -

A resting cheetah looks directly at the camera.

Cheetahs

WEBSITE ARTICLE

 

A generic website is shown on the screen of a laptop.

About Cheetahs

- POINTS TO COMPARE -

AUDIENCE: General

AUTHOR: A volunteer or staff member

PURPOSE OF ARTICLE: To inform, to give general information about cheetahs and their conservation

LANGUAGE: Informal

HOW ARE SOURCES CITED?: No citations at all informal or formal

# OF PAGES: 1 long webpage

SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ARTICLE

 

On a dark background with stars, a futuristic scholarly journal opens to the universe of knowledge.

- POINTS TO COMPARE -

AUDIENCE: Scholars and researchers in conservation

AUTHORS: Scholars and researchers who conducted the study

PURPOSE OF ARTICLE: To share in-depth scholarly research done by the authors

LANGUAGE: Formal, specialized

HOW ARE SOURCES CITED?: Formally, complete citations, in-text and references/bibliography

# OF PAGES: 11

 

Did you notice that the information in scholarly journal articles is more thorough and more specific than the other types of articles?Colorful, decorative horizontal line.