Scholarly journals, as opposed to popular magazines, are the main means by which advances in the field are communicated to its practitioners. Some, but not all scholarly journals, are peer reviewed or refereed. This is an important distinction and a rigorous review process. The process varies somewhat depending on the standards of the discipline.

Other characteristics of scholarly journals are:

1. The articles in them usually report the results of original research or thinking in order to make such information available to other scholars.
2. Articles are authored by scholarly authorities or outstanding practitioners. Frequently, there are several authors to an article.
3. The language is that of practitioners in a specific subject field. It assumes the reader has some knowledge of this language.
4. The authors' sources are cited in footnotes, bibliographies, or lists of references.
5. Many of them are published by a professional organization or a major graduate school.
6. Although not unattractive, the format of most of them is subdued and serious. The articles are heavy on charts, graphs, and diagrams; and are light on glitzy photos.
7. They contain little advertising and what there is tends to be very conservative.