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HSS 1000: Introduction to Research

Use this guide to help you figure out your research needs. Please don't forget that librarians are here to help you - so if you get stuck, reach out to us!

How Do I Know if an Article is Peer-Reviewed?

How can you tell whether a work is peer-reviewed? First, there are certain clues in the article itself:

1. Author credentials: She is an expert in the area she is studying and has a degree (PhD, for example) and a job (in academia or a research institute, think-tank, hospital, etc.) that relies on that expertise. When in doubt, Google the author!


2. Publisher: Usually the journal will be published by a scholarly society, university press, or major scholarly publisher like Elsevier, Springer, Taylor and Francis, Wiley, etc. When in doubt, Google the journal title! 
 

3. References: The authors of peer-reviewed articles will show you where they got their information from, either in the form of footnotes at the bottom of each page or a bibliography/endnotes at the end of the article.


4. Look: Peer-reviewed journals have a plain appearance. If they contain images, they tend to be figures, charts, and other images critical to understanding the research. 


5. Language: The authors of peer-reviewed articles are writing for experts in their field, so the language is dense and discipline-specific. 

If you found the journal article on the web, try Googling the journal title. Usually somewhere in the description or the instructions for authors, it will mention whether there is a peer-review process.
 

Note that an article can be from a peer-reviewed journal and not actually be peer reviewed. Editorials, news items, and book reviews do not necessarily go through the same review process. A peer-reviewed article should be longer than just a couple of pages and include a bibliography.