A scientific journal publishes articles or papers written by scientists or teams of scientists. These articles report on experiments or studies conducted by the authors. Sometimes, one experiment or study can result in more than one article or paper. Scientific journal articles undergo a process known as "peer review" before they are published. That means that when a paper is submitted to a journal, it is reviewed by the authors' peers, or, others in their field who can make judgements about the validity of the article's conclusions and the methodology used to reach them. Usually, the authors are affilliated with a university or other research intstitution.
Scientific papers follow a certain structure, so that papers can be read quickly and readers know which part to turn to to find what they are looking for. See this great site from Kenyon College to understand more about...
Be aware when using Google Scholar that you may not have access to the full text of articles you find. If you find a great-looking citation without full text access, try searching a library database for that article. If you still can't find it, contact Ms. Hammond with the full citation of the article you need.
TIP: When using a search engine like Google, search for the term "open ______ journal"; where _________ is the discipline in which you are researching (for example, "chemistry.")
