Scholarly journals are important sources of information for academic assignments.

Advantages of journal articles:

• Journal articles are written for experts by experts in a subject area, so everyone is familiar with the subject matter;
• Writers are reporting on the results of "orginal research" - the research they themselves have conducted on a problem or issue;
• Articles are "peer-reviewed" before they are published. This means that a panel of experts reviews the article for accuracy. The panel may suggest that the writer make edits and fix mistakes before the article is published;
• All source materials that is not the author's own work is easily found in the form of footnotes, parenthetical ("in-text") references, and bibliographies.

Disadvantages of journal articles:

• Frequent use of technical terminology or jargon familiar to subject experts, but unfamiliar to everyone else. Journal articles may be challenging (but not impossible) to read on the first try;
• Topics of general interest or current events may take time to publish after submission to a perr-reviewed panel of experts.

The following short video produced by Otis College of Art and Design explains the differences between scholarly journals, professional articles, and popular articles using Art, fashion, and architecture publications.