In the humanities, articles present critical analyses of a piece of work or historical events. Most scholarly journals are refereed, meaning the articles submitted to a scholarly journal are reviewed by the editor as well as one or more specialists in the field before approval is given to publish it. This process insures readers the articles are indeed contributions of knowledge in the field. Unlike the types of periodicals discussed above, scholarly journals are distinguished by plain covers and contain few or no advertisements. If advertisements are included, they are usually for publications or services in the field.
Many scholarly journals follow a continuous pagination format.
Continuous pagination occurs when an entire volume of issues use the same page number format for the entire volume set. For example, a journal's winter 1998 issue starts with page 1 and ends with page 120. Then its Spring 1998 issue begins with page 121, and the Summer 1998 issue will pick up where Spring left off. You'll need to be aware of this pagination structure as there is a specific citation style for journals using continuous pagination. For scholarly reports and research purposes, you'll most often want to use scholarly journals which provide original scientific and analytical research.