An academic journal is a magazine like publication on a particular subject that is published at regular intervals.

Each individual issue (or part) of a journal contains several journal articles, written by different authors on a specialised topic.

News and research are usually published first in journals, so they are useful to keep up-to-date and to discover what the latest research is within your subject area.

An academic or scholarly journal article is usually well researched by the author, so you may find a useful reference list at the end of the article which directs you to further reading.