Identifying Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
What is a Peer-Reviewed Article?
A peer-reviewed article is one that is written by an expert in a specific field and has been evaluated by other experts in the field and found to meet certain standards for quality. Also known as scholarly, academic, or refereed articles, peer-reviewed articles are published in journals that are designed to be read by other experts in the field. As a result, the language is subject-specific.
Research Article Break Down
Research articles follow a particular format. Look for:
- A brief introduction will often include a review of the existing literature on the topic studied, and explain the rationale of the author's study.
- A methods section, where authors describe how they collected and analyzed data. Statistical analysis are included.
- A results section describes the outcomes of the data analysis. Charts and graphs illustrating the results are typically included.
- In the discussion, authors will explain their interpretation of their results and theorize on their importance to existing and future research.
- References or works cited are always included. These are the articles and books that the authors drew upon to plan their study and to support their discussion.
Where do I find Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles?
Where do I find Peer-Reviewed Articles?
Some library databases contain only articles from peer-reviewed journals, but many contain a mix of peer-reviewed journal articles, trade and popular magazine articles, newspaper articles, reports, and more. You may also be looking for more than just peer-reviewed journal articles and in that case, a mix isn't a bad thing. If you want only peer-reviewed articles, limit your search. Some databases offer a checkbox that accomplishes this:
Keep in mind that even within scholarly journals, there are non-peer-reviewed articles such as book reviews and editorials. These will be in your results when you apply this limiter.
How Do I Know if the Article I've Found is Peer-Reviewed?
Peer-reviewed journal articles usually have the following elements:
- Written by an expert in that subject area. Check the credentials of the author.
- Contain a literature review to engage with previous research within the field.
- Contain a list of references either in footnotes or a bibliography.