- Worldwide, there are a large number of technical journals, published for specific fields of science or medicine. These fields vary widely and may focus on such diverse subjects as vertebrate anatomy or endocrinology.
- Articles in scientific journals are not written for the general public, but instead are directed to a distinct group of peers within the scientific community. For example, a wildlife biologist studying elephants in Africa might publish his results in a British journal, which would be read by other wildlife biologists around the globe.
- The university system is the largest publisher of such journals, but there are important periodicals issued by scientific or medical organizations that are outside the educational realm. One prominent example is the Journal of the American Medical Association.
- Scientific articles are always accompanied by an abstract, a short paragraph that explains what the research and article are about. This enables the reader to first peruse the abstract to see if the main article is of interest.
- There exists a whole field of popular science magazines, such as American Scientist and Natural History, which publishes scientific articles aimed for a general audience. These writers may use the scientific journals as references for an audience that is well-informed and well-read, but perhaps not able to understand the technical language of a journal.
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