A journal

• Is a scholarly periodical
• Is published in a regular frequency, often monthly
• Identifies its parts by volume numbers (typically, all issues published in one year have the same volume number), and individual issue numbers (for example: volume 12, number 2)
• Contains articles on topics related to the journal's focus, and sometimes book reviews and editorials
• Has very little advertising, and those few advertisements are for other scholarly publications

Journal articles

• Are written by academics and professionals who are specialists in their fields
• Are used to communicate new ideas and theories, and the results of current research
• Are much narrower in focus than books
• Are written in scholarly, often technical language
• Are often longer than magazine articles
• Provide references to other sources of information, which may include books, journal articles, web resources, and/or interviews 

Many scholarly articles are peer-reviewed.  That is, they are scrutinized by other experts in the fields before being approved for publication.  To learn more about scholary and peer-reviewed sources, see the library's other guide: