How to Know 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. Just what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) journal articles, and why do faculty crave their utilize?

Three categories of information resource:

• Newspapers and magazines containing news - Articles are written past reporters who may or may non exist experts in the field of the commodity. Consequently, articles may contain incorrect information.
• Journals containing articles written past academics and/or professionals — Although the manufactures are written by "experts," any particular "skillful" 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 order to ensure the commodity's quality. (The article is more likely to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In most cases the reviewers practice not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, non the reputation of the expert.

Helpful hint!

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

How do you decide whether an commodity qualifies equally being a peer-reviewed journal commodity?

Beginning, you 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 merely.
   Some databases allow y'all to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. For example, Bookish Search Consummate has this characteristic on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may accept to go to an "avant-garde" or "expert" search screen to practise this. Remember, many databases do not let you to limit your search in this way.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to make up one's mind if the periodical is indicated as existence peer-reviewed.
   If y'all cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will demand to cheque to run across if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This tin 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 periodical including any initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If you don't detect the journal you are interested in, you may want to utilize Method iii beneath. If your journal title IS displayed, check to run into if the journal is indicated equally being refereed by having the symbol next to the championship.
3. Examining the publication to see if it is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the first two methods you were unable to identify if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, you may so demand to examine the journal physically or look at additional pages of the journal online to decide if it is peer-reviewed. This method is not ever successful with resources available simply online. The post-obit steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, and then place the most electric current entire year's problems.
   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 journal, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription toll and similar data.
   3. Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If so, yous're done! If non, movement on to step d.
   4. Cheque in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If y'all observe information similar to "to submit articles, ship three copies…", the journal is probably peer-reviewed. In this case, yous are inferring that the publication is then going to send the multiple copies of the article to the journal's reviewers. This may not ever exist the case, then relying upon this criterion solitary may testify inaccurate.
   5. If you do not encounter this blazon of argument in the first issue of the journal that you look at, examine the remaining journals to see if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this information in merely a single upshot a year.
   6. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format judge the post-obit - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, determination, and references? Are the articles written by scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertisement non-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered aye to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This decision would be strengthened past having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you answered these questions no, the journal is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Discover the official spider web site on the internet, and check to see if it states that the periodical is peer-reviewed. Be careful to use the official site (often located at the journal publisher's spider web site), and, even then, information could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If you lot have 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

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