Journal articles are written by scholars in an academic or professional field. An editorial board reviews articles to decide whether they should be published.
Journal articles may cover very specific topics or narrow fields of research.
Since journals (like newspapers and magazines) are published at periodic intervals, they are grouped in the category called "periodicals."
They may be in print format or online as online journals accessible through the Library's article databases.
Many journals have their own websiteswith selections from their latest issues, and sometimes they provide earlier, popular articles for free, but will frequently charge you for full access to all of their articles.
When to use a Journal:
when doing scholarly research
to find out what has been studied on your topic
to find bibliographies that point to other relevant research