An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research. Content typically takes the form of articles presenting original research, review articles, and book reviews. Academic or professional publications that are not peer-reviewed are usually called professional magazines.
The term "academic journal" applies to scholarly publications in all fields; this article discusses the aspects common to all academic field journals. Scientific journals and journals of the quantitative social sciences vary in form and function from journals of the humanities and qualitative social sciences; their specific aspects are separately discussed. The similar American and British journal publication systems are primarily discussed here; practices differ in other regions of the world.
In brief, academic writing is 'structured research' written by 'scholars' for other scholars (with all university writers being 'scholars' in this context). Academic writing addresses topic-based 'research questions' of interest to anyone who is seeking factually-based, objectively-presented information on a particular topic. The objective of academic writing is the creation of 'new knowledge' via a review of what is currently known about a given topic as the foundation for the author's new views or perspectives on the topic.
In academic writing, the author covers the selected topic from an authoritative point of view. The writing is 'thesis-driven', meaning that the starting point is a particular perspective, idea or 'thesis' on the chosen topic, e.g. establishing, proving or disproving 'answers' to the 'research questions' posed for the topic. In contrast, simply describing a topic without the questions does NOT qualify as "academic writing."
Defining a research question requires the student to first consult existing information on the topic. After this, questions may arise, such as: Is it really this way? How or why did it get that way? Is it always this way? Does 'everyone' see it this way? Do newer sources agree with older ones on the topic? Or, to take another line of inquiry: What influence did X have on Finland (or, of what significance was it to Finland)? Why was the influence this great (or not greater)? What is uniquely 'Finnish' about this topic?
The foundation of the research paper is the documented review of what is currently known about the topic. On this foundation the author constructs his/her perspective, e.g. how the topic may be understood more fully or differently from what is "currently known." The author's perspective may come from the use of more extensive or more up-to-date sources than had been available to previous scholars, or by interpreting the details of these sources differently from how other scholars have done. Totally new information may also be created to 'test' or 'confirm' questions arising in the paper. For FIN-1 papers, the creation of such new information would be via the (optional) independent research component.
compiled from wikipedia & http://www.uta.fi