How to Find Out if Peer Reviewed Articles

How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals

In many cases professors will require that students utilize articles from "peer-reviewed" journals. Sometimes the phrases "refereed journals" or "scholarly journals" are used to describe the aforementioned blazon of journals. Only what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) periodical articles, and why do faculty require their use?

3 categories of information resources:

• Newspapers and magazines containing news - Articles are written past reporters who may or may not be experts in the field of the article. Consequently, manufactures may contain incorrect information.
• Journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals — Although the manufactures are written by "experts," any particular "expert" may have some ideas that are really "out at that place!"
• Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Articles are written by experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in the journal in order to ensure the article'southward quality. (The article is more likely to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In most cases the reviewers practise not know who the writer of the article is, and so that the commodity succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the proficient.

Helpful hint!

Not all information in a peer-reviewed journal is actually refereed, or reviewed. For example, editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, and other types of information don't count every bit articles, and may not exist accustomed by your professor.

How practise you determine whether an article qualifies as being a peer-reviewed journal article?

First, y'all need to be able to identify which journals are peer-reviewed. There are generally four methods for doing this

1. Limiting a database search to peer-reviewed journals only.
   Some databases permit yous to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. For example, Bookish Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may have to go to an "advanced" or "expert" search screen to do this. Remember, many databases do non allow you to limit your search in this manner.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the journal is indicated every bit beingness peer-reviewed.
   If you lot cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will demand to bank check to see if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This can be done by searching the database Ulrichsweb.com. Become to the alphabetical listing of databases and click on the "U". Select Ulrichsweb.com. It helps to type in the exact title of the source periodical including any initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If you don't discover the journal you lot are interested in, you may want to utilize Method 3 below. If your journal title IS displayed, bank check to meet if the journal is indicated every bit beingness refereed by having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to see if it is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the first ii methods you were unable to place if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, you may then need to examine the journal physically or look at boosted pages of the journal online to decide if it is peer-reviewed. This method is not e'er successful with resources available merely online. The following steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, then place the most current entire year's bug.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oft consists of a box towards either the front or the end of the periodical, and contains publication information such as the editors of the periodical, the publisher, the identify of publication, the subscription price and like information.
   3. Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If and so, you're washed! If not, motion on to step d.
   4. Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If yous find information similar to "to submit manufactures, send three copies…", the journal is probably peer-reviewed. In this instance, you lot are inferring that the publication is then going to transport the multiple copies of the article to the journal's reviewers. This may not always be the case, then relying upon this benchmark lone may prove inaccurate.
   5. If you do not see this type of statement in the first issue of the journal that you lot look at, examine the remaining journals to see if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this information in only a single consequence a year.
   6. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the commodity format guess the following - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references? Are the articles written by scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertising non-real, or kept to a minimum? Are at that place references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yes to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This conclusion would be strengthened past having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you lot answered these questions no, the journal is probably non peer-reviewed.
4. Find the official web site on the internet, and check to encounter if it states that the periodical is peer-reviewed. Be careful to apply the official site (often located at the journal publisher'south web site), and, even so, information could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If you lot have used the previous iv methods in trying to determine if an article is from a peer-reviewed journal and are still unsure, speak to your instructor.

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Source: https://www.angelo.edu/library/handouts/peerrev.php

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