And interesting new data or findings generally lead to repetition and refinement of the information by other scientists who may also publish papers on the subject. For the most part, journals publish papers that contain something novel or different, and that represent the results of original research efforts. A lot of the stuff is pretty trivial, but it is generally novel, and adds to the total base of knowledge and information. The next level in the information hierarchy consists of reviews. Reviews may sometimes be whole books, or may be chapters of books, or review papers published in the journals.
Reviews are very useful.
Reviews are very handy, because you can cover a lot of ground and get a general idea about a topic without having to find and then sit down and read 300 or 400 journal articles. The highest level in the information hierarchy is textbooks. Once a subject area has been thoroughly explored, and there is some consensus among knowledgeable scientists about the explanations for the phenomena, you will begin to find it in textbooks. Textbooks generally present material as fact. They are generally not appropriate places for detailed discussions of subtleties, differing opinions, contradictory data, and so forth.