I have recently been immersed in academic history journals while working on a project. Scholars from all areas of study publish in academic journals in order to share their research. Generally these journals are read by other scholars, but they are open to everyone, although there is often a cost.

Articles in scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, which means that they are evaluated by someone in the same field to verify methodology, maintain quality and provide credibility. So if you are a writer or student doing research, you can be confident that the information in the article is correct.

There is a tendency to believe that scholars writing for scholars leads to boring articles, but that is not always the case. A couple of weeks ago I used a scholarly article for my post “Dead Man’s Touch“.

All academic fields have journals, including science, math, medicine, philosophy, education, etc. But because all of those fields also have a history, there are also history journals about those topics.

So today I’m going to share some titles and links for recent articles that make me think, “Hmmm, that looks interesting.”

“God save us from psychologists as expert witnesses”: The battle for forensic psychology in early twentieth-century Germany. Author: Heather Wolffram. Published in History of Psychology, volume 18 issue 4, November 2015.

‘Come all you Wild and Wicked Youth’: Representations of Young Male Convicts in Nineteenth-Century English Broadsides. Author:  Cameron Nunn. Published in Journal of Victorian Culture, volume 20, issue 4, 2015.

Erecting Sex: Hermaphrodites and the Medieval Science of Surgery. Author: Leah DeVun. Published in Osiris, volume 30, issue 1, January 2015.
The invention of the basset hound: breed, blood and the late Victorian dog fancy, 1865-1900. Authors: Neil Pemberton and Michael Worboys. Published in European Review of History, volume 22, issue 5, 2015.
Variety is the spice of life!