A Journal is a periodical that publishes scholarly articles on topics that can be interdisciplinary (ex. Science or Nature); discipline-specific (ex. Journal of the American Chemical Society); or relatively narrow (ex. Langmuir).
Research articles usually contain:
Research articles are NOT good places to find:
Short articles (also called communications or letters) are not as long or thorough as full articles, and report research in progress and preliminary results likely to be of interest to the scientific community. Some journals publish both short and full articles; others publish only short articles.
Articles in scientific journals are written for experts, not the general public. This can make them hard to understand for readers who aren't already familiar with the topic.
