A refereed journal, also known as academic, scholarly, or peer-reviewed, is a periodical publication written by specialists in a given field of study. The articles in the journal are reviewed or "refereed", before publication by other specialists in the same field to ensure that the articles are correct in their methodology and justified in their conclusions.
As a result of this peer-review process, scholarly journals are considered far more reliable than popular periodicals such as Time or Newsweek or The New York Times wherein the articles are reviewed only by an editor who may not be a specialist in the area the article is discussing.
