Scholars are notorious for using a specialized vocabulary or jargon that may make understanding journal articles difficult. Moreover, battles have been waged by rival theorists and academics in the pages of journals, so even there you can't just take one person's word. There is a major controversy in the medical field about the amount of advertising by drug manufacturers in medical journals and what conflict of influence that may create. Professional Journals Students are frequently unsure about how to determine if a periodical is a professional journal. Below are some guidelines for evaluating whether a journal is professional or not.
Bulleted items are of particular significance .
Keep in mind that not all journals will possess all the characteristics cited below and that some popular magazines will have some of them. The sponsoring agency is a professional association, a learned society, a research center or institute, or a university. The journal is indexed in a scholarly, rather than a popular index. Editorial boards, international editors, advisory boards and the like, whose credentials or institutional affiliations are often indicated, are listed inside the front cover. An abstract which describes the nature and results of each study appears at the beginning of the article.