Journal Articles
A scholarly, academic journal is distinct from other “journals” (magazines, newspapers, or other periodicals). The thing that makes it different is that the articles within them tend to be peer-reviewed.
People outside of universities rarely consume content from academic, scholarly journals. The biggest reason why is that access to the best journals is usually restricted by enormous paywalls put in place by for-profit publishers, who charge universities and libraries extraordinary, rapacious sums of money just to let students and faculty at those institutions have access to their content. (Can you tell how I feel about scholarly journals?).
In any case, articles in scholarly journals tend to be written by people whose job is in academia (professors, researchers, and students with advanced training), and the writing tends to be dense with citation and theory. However, in university, we are called upon to make rigourous use of such research so that we can be on the cutting-edge of knowledge. So, your research paper will be taken more seriously if you find articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Journals that are commonly consulted in Canadian history include:
| Canadian Historical Review | Quebec Studies | Urban History Review |
| Canadian Journal of History | Ontario History | Left History |
| Histoire Sociale/Social History | Manitaba History | American Review of Canadian Studies |
| Journal of the Canadian Historical Association | Prairie Forum | British Journal of Canadian Studies |
| Newfoundland and Labrador Studies | BC Studies | Journal of Canadian Studies |
| Acadiensis | Oral History Forum | Labour/Le Travail |
Journal articles can be long. While an article in a newspaper or magazine tends to be short (1-3 pages), articles in an academic journal are usually at least 8 pages, sometimes much longer (15-20 is the norm). A journal article in political science that I had to read one time was 70 pages! But a journal article is roughly equivalent to the size of a chapter in an academic book. Which leads us to the next section: books!
See also:
So you have to write a research paper, part I: intro to primary and secondary sources
So you have to write a research paper, part II: archives and primary sources
So you have to write a research paper, part III: peer review and secondary sources
History Avenue 