Journals

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22321
• Date: 01 January 2018
• Published date: 01 January 2018

151

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22321

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Journals

James B. Edwards

Journals come in many

styles: scholarly, clinical,

news, popular, and so

on. At the current time, the

Journal of Corporate Account-

ing and Finance (JCAF) is a

balanced journal containing

scholarly works, clinical or

applied studies, informative

developments, commentar-

ies, and columns that follow

developments in specialized

areas such as taxation, U.S.

Securities and Exchange Com-

mission (SEC) activities, and

developments in the area of

financial accounting regulation

such as the Financial Account-

ing Standards Board (FASB),

International Financial Report-

ing Standards (IFRS), and

others. JCAF is international in

terms of authors and readers.

Authors are from many parts

of the world and the Journal is

available in institutional librar-

ies and electronic subscriptions

throughout the world.

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

A scholarly article is writ-

ten by experts in a particular

field of study. These articles

are intended to be read by

other experts or students

of the field and are usually

much more sophisticated and

advanced than the articles

found in other types of jour-

nals and magazines. Many fac-

ulty members assign research

papers or projects that require

students to use scholarly

articles. Journals such as the

Accounting Review and the

Journal of Accounting Research

are considered scholarly jour-

nals in accounting. This guide

offers tips to help distinguish

scholarly articles.

Characteristics of scholarly

articles include:

• Scholarly articles reflect the

systematic and thorough

study of a single topic,

often involving original

research, experimentation,

and surveys.

• A scholarly article will

typically be built around

an established or proposed

theorem requiring some

hypothesis testing.

• Articles are written by a

scholar in the field; the

author is always identified.

• Authors of scholarly

articles always list the

sources of their informa-

tion (e.g., endnotes, foot-

notes, bibliographies).

• In addition to their sources,

authors of scholarly

articles will often include

portions of the published

research of other scholarly

authors as background

and/or collaborating

evidence.

• Where quantitative repre-

sentations or inferences are

presented, authors will pro-

vide acceptable mathemati-

cal analytics to validate

these findings.

• Scholarly articles usu-

ally contain an advanced

vocabulary; since the

authors use the technical

language or jargon of their

field of study, they assume

the reader already possesses

a basic understanding of

the field of study.

• Scholarly articles may also

be called “academic articles”

or “peer-reviewed articles.”

Sometimes they are

“double-blind refereed

by peers” meaning that

the reviewers and authors

are anonymous to each

other. The referees are usu-

ally qualified experts of

the subject matter being

reviewed, which means

that they are at least peers

of the authors.

• These articles usually go

through a long and studi-

ous process of review. They

typically are revised one or