CASRAI Dictionary

Tag: academic journal

  • What Is an Academic Journal? Definition and How It Works

    An academic journal (also called a scholarly journal) is a periodical publication that disseminates original research and scholarship within a discipline, where submissions are quality-controlled through peer review before publication. It is the primary formal channel by which new findings enter the permanent scholarly record, and it is distinguished from a magazine or trade publication by its peer-reviewed, citable and archival nature.

    This article defines the academic journal, explains how peer review and editorial governance work, and clarifies the supporting concepts — the ISSN, volumes and issues, the version of record, and open-access versus subscription publishing.

    Peer review: the quality gate

    The defining feature of a scholarly journal is peer review, the process by which independent experts in the field evaluate a submitted manuscript before it is accepted. Reviewers assess the soundness of the methods, the validity of the conclusions, the originality of the contribution and the clarity of the reporting, and they recommend acceptance, revision or rejection. Peer review is the mechanism that gives journal articles their authority: a published, peer-reviewed paper has passed independent scrutiny, even though the process is imperfect and varies between journals.

    Common models include single-anonymised review (reviewers know the authors), double-anonymised review (neither party knows the other), and increasingly open or transparent review where reports are published alongside the article.

    The editorial board and editorial governance

    A journal is led by an editor (often an editor-in-chief) supported by an editorial board of subject experts who set scope and standards, oversee the review process, and uphold the journal’s editorial policies and research-integrity commitments. The editorial board’s standing is a key signal of a journal’s credibility, and its members typically handle or coordinate the peer review of submissions within their areas of expertise.

    The ISSN, volumes and issues

    Each journal is identified by an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number), the standard identifier for serial publications, with separate ISSNs commonly assigned to print and electronic versions. Content is organised into volumes (usually one per year) and issues (instalments within a volume), giving every article a stable bibliographic location. Increasingly, individual articles also carry a DOI so they can be cited and resolved reliably regardless of issue structure.

    Element Role
    ISSN Standard identifier for the journal as a serial
    Volume An annual (typically) grouping of issues
    Issue An instalment of articles within a volume
    DOI Persistent identifier for each individual article

    The version of record

    The version of record is the final, formally published, citable version of an article as it appears in the journal, after peer review, copy-editing and typesetting. It is distinct from earlier forms such as the submitted manuscript (preprint) and the accepted manuscript. The version of record is what the journal commits to preserving and what carries the article’s official metadata and identifiers. Authors navigating these versions and their re-use rights will find guidance on our for-authors page.

    Open access versus subscription

    Journals differ in how readers gain access. Under the traditional subscription model, institutions or individuals pay to read, and access is gated behind a paywall. Under open access, articles are free to read, with publishing costs sometimes met through article-processing charges or other funding arrangements. Many journals operate hybrid or transformative models. The access model affects who can read research but does not, in itself, determine its quality, which is governed by peer review and editorial standards.

    Journals sit within a wider ecosystem of research information systems and contributor frameworks such as the CRediT taxonomy, which records who did what on a published paper. Definitions of journal-related terms are maintained in the CASRAI dictionary. The internal anatomy of a journal article is covered in our companion piece on the IMRaD structure.

    Frequently asked questions

    What makes a journal “academic” rather than a magazine?

    An academic journal publishes original research that has passed independent peer review, is governed by an editorial board, and is intended to be cited and preserved as part of the scholarly record — characteristics that general magazines and trade publications lack.

    What is an ISSN?

    An ISSN is the International Standard Serial Number, a standardised identifier for a serial publication such as a journal. Print and electronic editions of the same journal usually have separate ISSNs.

    Is the version of record the same as the accepted manuscript?

    No. The accepted manuscript is the author’s version after peer review but before journal production. The version of record is the final, copy-edited, typeset article published by the journal, and it is the authoritative citable form.

    Does open access mean lower quality?

    No. The access model determines who can read an article, not whether it was peer reviewed. Quality is governed by peer review and editorial standards, which apply across both open-access and subscription journals.

  • Science Journal vs Academic Journal Explained

    A science journal is a scholarly periodical that publishes peer-reviewed research in the natural, physical, life or applied sciences. It is a specific kind of the broader category known as an academic or scholarly journal, which spans every discipline from the humanities to engineering. The terms are often used loosely, but the distinction matters when you are judging whether a source is authoritative.

    Put simply: every science journal is an academic journal, but not every academic journal is a science journal. The wider label describes the form; the narrower label describes the subject area.

    What makes a journal academic or scholarly

    An academic, or scholarly, journal is defined less by its topic than by how it operates. The defining features are consistent across disciplines.

    • Peer review. Submissions are evaluated by independent experts before acceptance, the safeguard explained in our guide to what peer review is.
    • Original or synthesising scholarship. Articles report primary research, or systematically review and analyse existing work, rather than summarising it for a general audience.
    • Citations and references. Claims are supported by a documented evidence trail.
    • Named, credentialed authors. Contributions and affiliations are disclosed, supporting accountability and attribution, as set out in our contributor roles guidance.
    • Editorial governance. An editorial board and stated policies oversee scope and standards.

    Science journal versus the broader academic journal

    The difference is primarily one of subject scope and audience, not of method.

    Feature Science journal Academic journal (general)
    Subject focus Natural, physical, life or applied sciences Any discipline, including humanities and social sciences
    Typical output Empirical studies, experiments, datasets Empirical studies, theoretical essays, critical analysis
    Peer review Yes Yes
    Example forms Disciplinary titles; multidisciplinary science titles Disciplinary and multidisciplinary titles across all fields

    Disciplinary versus multidisciplinary titles

    Within both categories, journals may be disciplinary or multidisciplinary. A disciplinary journal concentrates on a single field and serves specialists, allowing reviewers and readers with deep domain expertise. A multidisciplinary journal publishes across several fields and aims at a wider scholarly readership, which can broaden a paper’s reach but requires careful editorial handling so that specialist work is still reviewed by appropriate experts. Some of the best-known science titles are multidisciplinary, which is one reason the phrase “science journal” is sometimes used as shorthand for prestige rather than for a precise subject scope.

    Peer-reviewed journals versus magazines

    A frequent confusion is between scholarly journals and science magazines or trade publications. Magazines may report on research accurately and accessibly, but they are written by journalists or staff writers for a general audience, are not peer reviewed, and do not present primary research with full methods and data. They are valuable for communication and current awareness, but they are secondary sources. A scholarly journal, by contrast, is where the original, peer-reviewed contribution to the record appears. Distinguishing the two is a core information-literacy skill and connects to the wider goals of our responsible assessment coverage.

    How to tell whether a journal is scholarly

    To judge a journal, look for a clearly stated peer-review policy, a named editorial board with verifiable affiliations, transparent author and ethics policies, structured articles with methods and references, and indexing in recognised databases. For open-access titles specifically, inclusion in a vetted directory is a useful signal of legitimate practice. These cues, rather than the word “science” in a title, are what separate a reliable scholarly source from a magazine or a predatory imitation, and they are catalogued in our standards dictionary.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is a science journal different from an academic journal?

    A science journal is a type of academic journal that focuses on the sciences. “Academic journal” is the broader category covering every discipline, so all science journals are academic journals but not all academic journals are science journals.

    Are all academic journals peer reviewed?

    The defining feature of a scholarly academic journal is peer review. Some periodicals call themselves journals without operating genuine peer review, so it is wise to check the stated editorial process and indexing.

    What is the difference between a journal and a science magazine?

    A scholarly journal publishes original, peer-reviewed research with full methods and references. A science magazine reports on research for a general audience, is written by journalists, and is not peer reviewed, making it a secondary source.

    What makes a journal multidisciplinary?

    A multidisciplinary journal publishes work across several fields rather than a single discipline, aiming at a broad scholarly readership while still subjecting each submission to appropriate expert peer review.