Journals 

A journal is "a periodical containing scholarly articles and/or disseminating current infromation on research and development in a particular subject field" (Young, 1983).

To recognize a journal, look for:

• A plain cover
• Mostly text
• Authors with university affliations or professional titles
• An abstract at the beginning of each article
• Scholarly references, including a bibliography or list of references
• Very little or no advertising
• Longer articles (compared to magazines)
• Tables and graphs rather than photographs.
  

Very few journals, if any, are available in school libraries because they are geared toward adult professionals.  In addition, they tend to be rather expensive to subscribe to.  However, you can have access journals at your public or through school databases such as Ebscohost and Gale.  Here a couple that are available online:

JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)

http://jama.ama-assn.org/
 

Educational Leadership