How Can You Know if an Article Is Peer Reviewed

How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals

In many cases professors will require that students employ articles from "peer-reviewed" journals. Sometimes the phrases "refereed journals" or "scholarly journals" are used to describe the same blazon 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 - Articles are written by reporters who may or may not exist experts in the field of the article. Consequently, articles may contain incorrect information.
• Journals containing manufactures written by academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by "experts," whatever particular "expert" 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 article is published in the journal in lodge to ensure the commodity'southward quality. (The article is more probable to be scientifically valid, achieve reasonable conclusions, etc.) In well-nigh cases the reviewers practise non know who the author of the commodity is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not 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 as articles, and may non exist accepted past your professor.

How do y'all determine whether an commodity qualifies as existence a peer-reviewed journal article?

First, yous demand 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 allow you to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. 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 have to get to an "advanced" or "expert" search screen to practice this. Call up, many databases do not allow y'all to limit your search in this fashion.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the periodical is indicated as being peer-reviewed.
   If you cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will need to check to encounter if the source of an commodity is a peer-reviewed journal. This can be washed 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 journal including any initial A, AN, or THE in the championship. If you don't find the journal you are interested in, you may want to utilize Method 3 below. If your journal championship IS displayed, check to see if the journal is indicated as being refereed past having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to see if it is peer-reviewed.
   If past using the offset ii methods you were unable to identify if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, y'all may so need to examine the journal physically or expect 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 journal in the Library or online, then identify the most electric current entire year's bug.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oftentimes consists of a box towards either the front or the cease 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 periodical say that it is peer-reviewed? If and so, you're done! If not, move on to footstep d.
   4. Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting manufactures to the publication.  If you find information like to "to submit manufactures, send iii copies…", the journal is probably peer-reviewed. In this case, you are inferring that the publication is so going to send the multiple copies of the commodity to the journal'southward reviewers. This may not always be the case, so relying upon this criterion alone may show inaccurate.
   5. If you do non see this type of statement in the starting time effect 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 just a single issue a year.
   6. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format approximate 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 there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If y'all answered yes to all these questions , the periodical may very well be peer-reviewed. This decision would be strengthened by having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If y'all answered these questions no, the journal is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Detect the official web site on the internet, and check to see if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be conscientious to utilise the official site (ofttimes located at the journal publisher's web site), and, fifty-fifty then, information could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If yous take used the previous four methods in trying to determine if an commodity 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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