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CHAPTER FIVE WHAT IS A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

riminal Justice and Forensic Investigation scholars are expected to use scholarly

sources in all avenues of course assignments, including homework, discussion

postings (if on-line), projects, and research papers. Depending on the level of the

course or the scope of the assignment, the number of the expected scholarly sources may

vary. For example, students in the freshman and sophomore (100-200) level courses may

be required to use at least one scholarly source for research papers, while students at the

500-600 level (graduate school) may be required to use between 10-35 professional

journals, depending on the assignment. As one progresses through university studies, one

will find that the expectation to include scholarly work increases as students evolve into

higher level courses.

A scholarly or peer-reviewed source primarily advances knowledge in the discipline of

Criminal Justice or Forensic Investigation. These journal articles are generally original

research or present a new way to consider scholarly material. The articles usually involve an

extensive literature review of other peer-reviewed journals. The article then leads either to a

conclusive summary or to presenting new findings. Publishing a scholarly article is most

often the result of years of research and the authors have completed many drafts and

revisions. Before being published, the article is considered by a peer group of professional

scholars in the field or in the area of expertise to ensure quality, originality, and integrity of

the research, as well as significance to the field. This is called a peer review. The criteria

are very stringent; therefore, the published scholarly articles are considered valid and quality

work that best represents the discipline. Trade publications, popular media outlets, and the

Internet do not have this requirement, and therefore are not given the same credibility as

scholarly journal articles.

Students in the criminal justice or forensic investigation departments are expected to

recognize the difference and become more adept in using scholarly journal articles. This is a

crucial and necessary step. Students are expected to incorporate the most valid sources.

When in doubt about sources’ validity, the professor or instructor is the best resource.

Most university libraries host search engines, such as Ebscohost and ProQuest, as well

as many other data bases. There are also free sources, such as Google-Scholar and the

like. However, students should be cautious. Most search engines give researchers an

option of selecting scholarly sources only when searching these data bases. Too often, in

my experience, trade publications or popular media (newspapers) sources are often

improperly included. Therefore, one should not rely solely on the search engine to

determine scholarly journals.

Newspapers and news magazines are not scholarly journals. Although these outlets may

be valuable to establish chronological timelines, the magazines and newspapers are not

peer reviewed. The articles are regulated by editors and often news sources have either a

conservative or liberal spin. Therefore, these sources raise suspicion regarding credibility.

Secondary or Data Sources (like the datum found in the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice)

are usually published by government organizations or research organizations and simply

present findings and data. A strong example would be the crime rate. Data may show the

crime rate has risen or fallen but does not speculate as to why the crime rate has risen or

fallen. The reason is a speculation proposed by scholars, but data is data and facts are

facts that require interpretation and discussion. Data sources and some scholarly articles

are offered online. This does not necessarily put the articles into an Internet Category.

Although some of these internet sources are valuable in supporting student’s research, they

are not considered scholarly journals. As a rule of thumb, one should avoid websites that

end in .com (commercial) and should search for ones ending in .edu (education) or .gov

(government).

Sometimes students will cite their textbook in their research papers. As a general rule, a

textbook is a valid source for the course lectures, but it is not a strong source for papers or

assignments. Professors and universities choose course textbooks to serve as road maps

for their courses. Students are expected to read the textbook and use it to prepare for

examinations. However, textbooks are compilations of most of the current ideas on a

specific topic; therefore they are broadly presented. Journal articles are more focused on a

particular idea or point (remember the concept of depth). A strong practice would be to use

the textbook material to gain ideas for research. Students should pay particular attention to

the footnotes or citations in the textbook chapters as these footnotes will often guide

researchers to either journal articles or reliable secondary data sources.

Specific books in criminal justice or forensic investigation are often collections of

essays or articles on specific topics. These collections are valuable, but students should use

them cautiously. By the time a book is published, several years may have passed making

the book somewhat outdated. After seven years or so, students are better served finding a

journal article. However, students may be looking for classic works, (e.g., The Criminal Man,

Essay on Crimes and Punishment, Broken Windows, the Hsi Yuan Lu, etc.) and these are

often found in books. In summary, textbooks and books do not hold the same validity as

scholarly journal articles and I advise a sparing and utilitarian approach.

There are several helpful articles available on the Internet showing techniques for

differentiating scholarly journal articles from other sources. A motivated student simply

needs to visit a search engine and type in scholarly versus non-scholarly sources or how to

recognize scholarly sources. Over the years, I have collected and modified several of these

sources and have amassed these ideas into the following table. I believe the table to be

helpful as it reflects ideas from multiple sources.

At first, differentiating scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles from other sources

may appear cumbersome, but students’ skills will greatly improve as they progress through

their program and careers. One day, you may be publishing peer-reviewed journal articles

and I look forward to reading them.

Chapter Exercise: Kane’s Technique for Verifying Scholarly Journals

Step One: Students should first review this chapter paying close attention to the

provided table. In a lecture based course, students should be given instruction and

guidance regarding this chapter and their questions should be answered. When students

are clear on the differentiations, they should advance to step two.

Step Two: Students should gather their working purpose statements from the previous

chapter. Using their purpose statements as a guide along with their subsequent Discussion

subheadings, students should visit their university’s library (on-sight or electronically) to

research and discover:

 Five (5) scholarly journal articles relating to their purpose statement. These must meet

the criteria found from the table and be published within the last seven years. Students

should be required to produce paper (hard) copies or electronic copies depending on the

course delivery. [Note: PDF copies of the article are preferred as these will show actual

page numbers for direct quotations later.]

 At least one (1) relevant article from a trade journal. These must meet the criteria found

from the table and be published within the last seven years. Students should be required

to produce paper (hard) copies or electronic copies depending on the course delivery.

 At least one (1) data source relevant to their purpose statement. These are commonly

found in the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice. These must meet the criteria found from the

table and the study should have been conducted and published within the last seven

years. Students should be required to produce paper (hard) copies or electronic copies

depending on the course delivery.

 At least two (2) additional relevant sources from any criteria. These must meet the

criteria found from the table and be published within the last seven years. Students

should be required to produce paper (hard) copies or electronic copies depending on the

course delivery. Students should identify the category of these optional sources.

Step 3: The professor will evaluate the student’s declarations of sources and check the

relevance of the sources to the student’s research papers in progress. The goal of this

exercise is to give the student an opportunity to differentiate between various scholarly

sources, provide the student practical experience with research engines and databases, and

accelerate the research process and paper preparation.

One technique I always stress is that if students can find one relevant and current

scholarly journal article, then a review of that article’s references section should produce

several more scholarly sources. This is accomplished by simply examining the reference

section and the literature review section of that article. This is an effective research

technique that promotes accuracy and efficiency.

The products of this exercise serve as a foundation for the next chapter and the

corresponding exercise. In the next chapter, students will be introduced to effective and

meaningful literature reviews.

References

Kane, M.J. (2015). Research paper writing guide for criminal justice and forensic

investigation scholars. Crimeink Publishing. ISBN 13: 978-1-63415-618-9

Available from www.songerinstitute.com

http://www.songerinstitute.com/

Differentiating and Identifying Peer Reviewed Journal Articles from Other Sources.

Page 1 of 3 Peer

Reviewed

Scholarly

Journals

Trade

Publications

Secondary Data

Sources

Popular

Media Outlets

Internet

Purpose of the

Article

Present

research,

theories, or

methods

Present

industry trends,

new products/

techniques, or

organization

news

Present data

from surveys

and studies,

results with few

or no

implications

Entertainment Advertise

and

Entertain

Intended

Audience

Scholars,

Researchers

Students

Business or

industry leaders

( i.e., police

chiefs,

wardens,

private security)

Scholars,

Researchers

Students

Administrator

Policy Makers

General

Public

General

Public

Authors Scholars and

Researchers

Look for

Academic

Credentials

Journal Staff

with editor,

staff and

freelance

writers

Government or

Independent

Research

Organizations

i.e., BJS, NIJ,

Census, grant

managers

Publication

staff; May

have

contributing

freelance

writers

Anonymous

or unknown

authors;

Often the

title of the

web page is

your author

Peer

Review?

Yes Very

strict and blind

reviewed

No Articles

are accepted by

the editor or a

team of editors

No Data

is edited by

statisticians or

government

oversight

Articles are

accepted by

the editor or a

team of

editors

No Often

self

published

Differentiating and Identifying Peer Reviewed Journal Articles from Other Sources.

Page 2 of 3

Peer

Reviewed

Scholarly

Journals

Trade

Publications

Secondary

Data

Sources

Popular Media

Outlets

Internet

Citations

and End

References

Always cited in

text with

extensive

reference section

of many other

scholarly sources

Sporadic, some

may contain

citation, but not

all

Original

citations only

(the study

itself)

Usually, no

citations

Usually, no

citations

Tone of the

Writing

Very formal,

academic, with

no slang or

jargon

Specialized

language

written in

conversational

tone with many

examples of

jargon and

technical words

Graphs,

charts,

statistical

analysis in a

formal tone

Everyday

language

appealing to

the general

public

Everyday

language

appealing to the

main-stream

public

Appearance Very serious

appearance,

black and white

text, figures,

graphs and

charts and

occasionally, a

picture No