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GEH1049 / GEC1015 Public Health in Action

About Journal Articles

  • ​Published in academic journals by professional associations, university presses or other academic publishers.
  • Usually peer reviewed (refereed) before publication and this involves subjecting the author's scholarly work and research to the scrutiny of other experts in the same field. Peer review acts as a filter to ensure that only high quality research is published, especially in reputable journals, by determining the validity, significance and originality of the study.
  • There are academic journals for every subject area. For example, the title "New Media and Society" is an academic journal in the field of communications while the "International Journal of Epidemiology" and "Palliative Medicine" are journals for the field of public health. 

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Structure of a Journal Article

  • Authors 
    Authors of the articles are scholars, researchers and experts within the field. Their credentials and institutional affiliations will be given.​
  • Purpose 
    To disseminate or report on original research, experimentation and scholarly discussions among scholars (faculty, researchers, students) in a discipline. 
  • Language
    Highly specialized and may use technical language/terminology appropriate to the discipline. Reader is assumed to have a similar scholarly background
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  • Scholarly articles tend to be lengthy and detailed, about research in a particular academic discipline
  • They contain graphs, charts, and photographs that support the research:

  • They are often structured into sections (see example) including:
    • Abstract
    • Literature review
    • Methodology
    • Results
    • Conclusion
    • Bibliography
  • The journals have simple covers, clearly stating basic information like title, volume/issue numbers, and the name of the organization or university responsible for their publication. They are usually in plain format with little or no advertising. 

 

  • Scholarly articles cite their sources and include bibliographies or reference lists at the end of the texts. For some arts and humanities subjects,  the articles may include substantial footnotes/endnotes. 

​View the tab on Writing/Citing for more on why, when, where and how to cite the sources that you have used for your research assignment.

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