Peer review is the process by which an authors peers, as well as researchers in the field, read and evaluate the paper submitted for publication. The researchers recommend whether the paper should be published. Articles accepted for publication through a peer review process meet the standards of expertise in that field or subject. Peer reviewed journals are scholarly journals that only publish articles that have passed through this peer review process.
You can often find scholarly articles in the library's databases. Several of these databases have the option of restricting your search to these types of articles only. This option may have a name such as “peer reviewed” or “scholarly journals.”
Either of these choices will limit your database search to scholarly articles.
How do you know if a journal is peer reviewed?
Some databases will let you check a box to limit to peer reviewed articles. Also, look at the journal's website which will explain the editorial process including whether or not the journal is peer reviewed.
Scholarly articles are published in scholarly journals. Most of these journals are discipline specific. For example, if you study Psychology you may want to look in the Journal of General Psychology.
When searching for a scholarly article be sure to look for:
- The Bibliographic information (author, title, publisher, date, volume and issue number)
- The author's affiliations and credentials (what their expertise is in the field)
- A summary of the article, known as the Abstract.