什么是学术期刊? 王应宽 2008-08-05 学术期刊刊发的文献以学术论文为主,而非学术期刊刊发的文献则以文件、报道、讲话、体会、知识等只能作为学术研究的资料而不是论文的文章为主。那么,什么是学术期刊?学术期刊是期刊中的一类,主要发表由 专家撰写 的并经 同行评审 的 学术性 论文 。学术期刊的主要功能是 传播知识 ,而不仅仅是为出版者 赚钱 。 了解这个定义很重要,可以用来检验我们正在创办的学术期刊是否合乎要求,有违初衷。例如,我们有的学术期刊发表的文章不是专家撰写的,发表的文章不是学术文章或学术性很差(学术垃圾),有的没有经过同行评审,或者同行评审机制存在问题,未能发挥应有的把关作用。学术期刊的功能是传播知识,而不是为出版者赚钱,可是有的主管部门、主办单位和编辑出版部门恁要把学术期刊推向市场,让学术期刊去赚钱,于是学术与金钱联姻,学术腐败、学术不端随即产生,并迅速蔓延。 学术性每一个事实或观点都是得到充分证实的 学术文献提供确切的出处,包括作者、页码,以及每一项重要的外部信息。文章应该以详细的参考文献结尾。还可能提供脚注和尾注。文章只提供进一步阅读的推荐文献资料,或模糊的资料集来源是不够的。学术文章可能很长、复杂,非领域专家可能难以马上读懂文章。 同行评审稿件由专家组筛选和认可 每一本学术期刊都有一个同行评审委员会(一个专家组),来决定那些投稿可以接受发表。评审委员会可能会把文章和改进建议一并返回给作者修改。 同行评审的过程并非只简单的涉及拼写错误。评审委员会将调查和挑战作者提出的主要假设和结论,如果评委会认为文章值得进一步考虑,作者才有机会反馈。如果一篇文章已经发表在某学术期刊,你可以相信在某个特定领域知道得比你多的人们已经评审筛选出了一篇内容可信值得发表的文章。 如果主题是广为关注的学术热点,该领域的其他学者更愿意发表一篇新的文章,来挑战或改正该领域其他学者发表的文章中的错误或细节。 虽然学术期刊都需要实行同行评审,但实践表明,同行评审并不完善,还有很大改进的空间。 学术文章由专家撰写而不是新闻记者撰写 学术期刊通常限定其投稿人为教授、研究生或其他拥有有关某个主题第一手研究资料的专业人员。如果论文归功于诸如新闻记者(特约撰稿人、通信记者、或特定的自由撰稿人)之类的作者,那么你所阅读的很可能是一本杂志。 一个新闻记者可能写出一篇深思熟虑的、富有深刻见解的重要的就学术领域某一问题的概述,但新闻记者的工作是总结和解释其他人所做的工作。如果没有其他专家所作的原创性学术工作,就如巧妇难为无米之炊,学术记者将没有素材撰写报道。 Dennis G. Jerz . Academic Journals: What are They? http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic/sources/journals/index.html 附:学术期刊与普通杂志的比较 Dennis G. Jerz . Academic Journals -- Compared to Magazines. http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic/sources/journals/vs_magazines.htm Academic Journals -- Compared to Magazines An article in an academic journal may outwardly resemble a magazine article, but even the surface differences are numerous, important, and actually quite easy to spot. This table shows you some of the outward differences, but by far the most important difference is the fact that articles published in academic journals are peer-reviewed (checked and approved by knowledgeable scholars) while magazines articles are not. Academic Journals Magazines Purpose: to distribute highly specific knowledge to experts and students; contributors are publishing in order to establish or improve their professional reputation to make money by supplying a platform to advertisers who want to reach a particular audience; from a certain blunt perspective, the articles only exist in order to trick you into looking at the advertisements Frequency semi-annual, quarterly , or monthly monthly, weekly or even daily Medium: online and/or print online and/or print On Paper: most have a square binding spine may contain the issue information inside, the paper is plain, not glossy footnotes, a bibliography folded with a staple along the center line splashy cover; lots of large headline text lots of glossy, full-page color ads no footnotes possibly a suggested reading list Citations : each article concludes with a Works Cited or Bibliography list; article includes (in footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical notes) full publication data on all outside sources -- including the page numbers for direct quotes or paraphrasings. possibly a suggested reading list, but no formal bibliography, and no footnotes; the article may refer to a recent government study or may give the title of a book, but it won't specify the page number where a specific quote or fact can be found in those outside sources Online: site is hosted by a university (.edu) or possibly a non-profit group (.org) looks plain, possibly even amateurish home page does not change on a regular basis domain name ends in .com flashing graphics and marginal gizmos that encourage you to spend your money fancy exciting home page Ads: if any, they are directed towards specialists (job openings for researchers, upcoming conferences, other journals) colorful and splashy ads for everything from cars to cigarettes to the latest movies Authors: mostly university professors (paid by their universities to write about their own original achievements in the lab, library, or classroom) reporters (paid by the magazine, to write about what somebody else is doing -- not about their own original achievements in the lab, library, or classroom) Audience: experts and students the general public (or some subset, such as Mac users or sports fans) Articles: titles are long and boring: A Psychological Case Study of Y2K-related Fears among College-educated Workers in the Midwest; each takes up about ten pages of dense prose; long sentences full of semicolons; long paragraphs titles are short and snappy: How America survived Y2K; sometimes only one or two sentences to a paragraph; much easier to read than most academic articles Contents: academic articles, book reviews, and letters to the editor are the largest sections; you may find an occasional interview with an important figure, but there are no man on the street interviews; no sit-down chats with celebrities; no advice columns or humor may include humor, fiction, product reviews, a sports section, movie reviews, celebrity interviews, book reviews, current events, international news, etc. Dennis G. Jerz 28 Dec 1999 -- First posted.