As science grew, so did the volume of literature and the specialization of journals. Today there are over 100,000 scientific journals. Covering a highly specialized area of research. These journals specialize in longer articles summarizing the research in a particular field, usually over a specified chronological range. These are generally written by scientists who are expert in the field.
Some journals specialize in rapid publication of short announcements of research results.
The majority of scientific journals publish peer-reviewed articles, also called refereed articles. In these journals, the editor sends submitted articles out to persons expert in the field of the article. The referee comments on the article and the research it presents. The editor then decides whether to accept the article as is, send it back to the author for revision, or reject it outright. Note that electronic processing methods, such as e-mail of manuscripts between authors, editors and referees is speeding up the process.