How Tell 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 blazon of journals. But what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) periodical articles, and why practice faculty crave their utilise?

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 commodity. Consequently, articles may contain incorrect data.
• Journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by "experts," any particular "proficient" may take some ideas that are really "out at that place!"
• Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Manufactures 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's quality. (The commodity is more likely to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In nearly cases the reviewers exercise not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its ain merit, not the reputation of the skilful.

Helpful hint!

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

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

Commencement, you need to be able to place 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 let you to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals merely. For case, Academic Search Consummate has this characteristic on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you lot may have to go to an "advanced" or "expert" search screen to do this. Call back, many databases practice not allow y'all to limit your search in this way.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the periodical is indicated every bit being peer-reviewed.
   If y'all cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will need to check to encounter if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This can exist washed by searching the database Ulrichsweb.com. Go 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 whatever initial A, AN, or THE in the championship. If you don't discover the journal you are interested in, y'all may want to utilize Method three below. If your journal title IS displayed, check to run across if the journal is indicated equally beingness refereed by having the symbol next to the championship.
3. Examining the publication to see if it is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the commencement ii methods you lot were unable to identify if a periodical (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, y'all may then need to examine the journal physically or look at boosted pages of the journal online to make up one's mind if information technology is peer-reviewed. This method is not e'er successful with resources available only online. The post-obit steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, then place the well-nigh electric current unabridged year's issues.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This ofttimes consists of a box towards either the front or the end of the journal, and contains publication data such as the editors of the journal, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription toll and similar information.
   3. Does the periodical say that information technology is peer-reviewed? If so, you're washed! If not, move on to stride d.
   4. Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If you lot find information like to "to submit articles, 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's reviewers. This may not always be the case, and so relying upon this benchmark lonely may prove inaccurate.
   5. If you do non run across this type of statement in the start upshot of the journal that yous await at, examine the remaining journals to come across if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this information in only a unmarried issue a year.
   6. Is information technology scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format approximate the following - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references? Are the articles written past scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertising non-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If yous answered yes to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This conclusion would exist strengthened by having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you lot answered these questions no, the periodical is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Discover the official web site on the net, and bank check to run into if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be careful to apply the official site (often located at the periodical publisher's web site), and, fifty-fifty then, information could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If you have used the previous 4 methods in trying to determine if an article is from a peer-reviewed periodical and are yet unsure, speak to your teacher.

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

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