Refereed journals, also called peer reviewed, are scholarly journals that access a draft of potential articles prior to publication and have them read and critiqued by other experts in the author's discipline. This is often done without knowledge of the author's name so that content is not judged by the author's reputation. This process helps insure that articles printed in the journal reflect scholarly content.

Scholarly journals are usually published by professional organizations. Authors who publish in these journals are experts in their fields and are concerned with academic study, research and experimentation. These authors assume a reader's knowledge of the subject and write accordingly. All sources in the publication are cited by footnotes or bibliographies. While all scholarly journals are not peer reviewed, all peer reviewed journals are assumed to be scholarly.