How Do You Know if an Article Is Peer-reviewed?

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 same type of journals. But what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) journal articles, and why do faculty require their use?

Three categories of information resources:

• Newspapers and magazines containing news - Manufactures are written by reporters who may or may not be experts in the field of the article. Consequently, articles may contain incorrect information.
• Journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by "experts," any particular "expert" may have some ideas that are actually "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 periodical in lodge to ensure the article'south quality. (The commodity is more probable to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In near cases the reviewers do not know who the author of the article is, so that the commodity succeeds or fails on its own merit, non the reputation of the expert.

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 be accepted by your professor.

How do you lot determine whether an article qualifies every bit being a peer-reviewed journal article?

Beginning, you need to exist able to identify which journals are peer-reviewed. There are more often than not 4 methods for doing this

1. Limiting a database search to peer-reviewed journals merely.
   Some databases permit you to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals merely. For example, Bookish Search Consummate has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may take to go to an "advanced" or "expert" search screen to do this. Recall, many databases do non allow you to limit your search in this way.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to make up one's mind if the journal is indicated as beingness peer-reviewed.
   If you cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, yous will need to check to see if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This tin can be done by searching the database Ulrichsweb.com. Get 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 journal including whatsoever initial A, AN, or THE in the championship. If you don't discover the journal y'all are interested in, you may want to utilize Method 3 below. If your periodical championship IS displayed, cheque to meet if the periodical is indicated every bit beingness refereed by having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to run into if information technology is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the first two methods you were unable to identify if a journal (and an commodity therein) is peer-reviewed, you may then demand to examine the periodical physically or look at additional pages of the periodical online to determine if it is peer-reviewed. This method is not always successful with resource available only online. The post-obit steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, and then identify the about current unabridged year'due south issues.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oftentimes consists of a box towards either the front or the terminate of the journal, and contains publication information such as the editors of the periodical, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription cost and like information.
   3. Does the periodical say that information technology is peer-reviewed? If so, yous're done! If not, move on to step d.
   4. Check in and effectually the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If y'all observe data similar to "to submit manufactures, send three 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'southward reviewers. This may non always exist the case, and then relying upon this criterion alone may prove inaccurate.
   5. If you exercise non see this type of statement in the starting time issue of the journal that you await at, examine the remaining journals to see if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this information in just a single event a year.
   6. Is information technology scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format guess the following - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, determination, 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 in that location references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yep to all these questions , the periodical may very well be peer-reviewed. This determination would be strengthened by having met the previous benchmark of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you answered these questions no, the journal is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Discover the official web site on the internet, and check to see if information technology states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be careful to apply the official site (often located at the journal publisher's web site), and, fifty-fifty and then, information could potentially exist "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

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

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

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