How Do I Know if It Is a Peer Reviewed Article

How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals

In many cases professors volition crave that students employ articles from "peer-reviewed" journals. Sometimes the phrases "refereed journals" or "scholarly journals" are used to depict the same type of journals. But what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) journal articles, and why do faculty crave their apply?

Three 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 commodity. Consequently, articles may incorporate incorrect information.
• Journals containing manufactures written by academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by "experts," any particular "good" may have some ideas that are really "out there!"
• Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Articles are written by experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the commodity is published in the journal in order to ensure the article'south quality. (The article is more than likely to be scientifically valid, attain reasonable conclusions, etc.) In most cases the reviewers do non know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its ain merit, not the reputation of the expert.

Helpful hint!

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

How do you determine whether an article qualifies equally being a peer-reviewed journal article?

First, you demand to be able to identify which journals are peer-reviewed. At that place are by and large four methods for doing this

1. Limiting a database search to peer-reviewed journals merely.
   Some databases allow you to limit searches for manufactures to peer reviewed journals only. For example, Academic Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases yous may have to go to an "avant-garde" or "expert" search screen to do this. Call up, many databases exercise non let y'all to limit your search in this way.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the periodical is indicated as existence peer-reviewed.
   If y'all cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, y'all will demand to check to see if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This can be done by searching the database Ulrichsweb.com. Go to the alphabetical list of databases and click on the "U". Select Ulrichsweb.com. It helps to type in the exact title of the source journal including any initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If you don't discover the periodical you lot are interested in, you may desire to use Method iii below. If your journal championship IS displayed, check to come across if the journal is indicated as being refereed by having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to see if it is peer-reviewed.
   If past using the first two methods you lot were unable to place if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, yous may and then need to examine the periodical physically or look at additional pages of the journal online to decide if information technology is peer-reviewed. This method is not ever successful with resources available only online. The post-obit steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the periodical in the Library or online, so identify the most current unabridged year's problems.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This often consists of a box towards either the front end or the end of the journal, and contains publication information such as the editors of the journal, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription cost and similar data.
   3. Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If and so, yous're washed! If not, movement on to step d.
   4. Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting manufactures to the publication.  If you notice information similar to "to submit manufactures, send 3 copies…", the journal is probably peer-reviewed. In this case, you are inferring that the publication is then going to send the multiple copies of the commodity to the periodical'due south reviewers. This may not always exist the instance, and so relying upon this criterion lone may prove inaccurate.
   5. If yous practice non meet this blazon of statement in the first effect of the journal that you look at, examine the remaining journals to meet if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this information in only a single issue a year.
   6. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format approximate the post-obit - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references? Are the manufactures written by scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertising non-existent, 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 determination would exist strengthened by having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you answered these questions no, the periodical is probably non peer-reviewed.
4. Find the official web site on the net, and check to see if it states that the periodical is peer-reviewed. Be careful to use the official site (ofttimes located at the journal publisher's spider web site), and, fifty-fifty then, information could potentially exist "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If yous accept used the previous four 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