Appalachian Journal, founded in 1972, is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed quarterly featuring field research, interviews, and other scholarly studies of history, politics, economics, culture, folklore, literature, music, ecology, and a variety of other topics, as well as poetry and reviews of books, films, and recordings dealing with the region of the Appalachian mountains.

It encourages the submission of well researched and first-hand articles, and tends to publish longer manuscripts rather than simple conference papers. This journal follows the literature style of the Modern Language Association, although there may be deviations at times. As a peer-reviewed journal, submitted works will be sent to scholars for review and suggestions for acceptance, revision, etc.