How Do I Know if an Article Has Been Peer Reviewed

How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals

In many cases professors volition require that students apply articles from "peer-reviewed" journals. Sometimes the phrases "refereed journals" or "scholarly journals" are used to describe the same type of journals. Only what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) journal articles, and why practise faculty require their use?

3 categories of information resources:

• Newspapers and magazines containing news - Articles are written by reporters who may or may non be experts in the field of the article. Consequently, manufactures may contain incorrect information.
• Journals containing articles written past academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written past "experts," any particular "good" may take some ideas that are really "out there!"
• Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Manufactures are written past experts and are reviewed past several other experts in the field before the article is published in the journal in society to ensure the article's quality. (The commodity is more than probable to be scientifically valid, achieve reasonable conclusions, etc.) In most cases the reviewers do not know who the writer of the article 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 periodical is actually refereed, or reviewed. For example, editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, and other types of information don't count as manufactures, and may not be accepted by your professor.

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

First, you lot need to exist 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 case, Bookish Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may take to become to an "avant-garde" or "proficient" search screen to do this. Remember, many databases practise not permit you lot 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 y'all cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, y'all will need to check to meet if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This tin be done 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 whatever initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If you lot don't find the journal you are interested in, you may desire to utilize Method 3 below. If your journal title IS displayed, cheque to see if the journal is indicated as being refereed by having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to run into if it is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the first two methods you were unable to place if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, you lot may and so need to examine the journal physically or look at additional pages of the journal online to determine if it is peer-reviewed. This method is not ever successful with resources bachelor merely online. The following steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, and then identify the virtually current unabridged year's issues.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oftentimes consists of a box towards either the front end or the cease of the periodical, and contains publication information 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 done! If not, move on to step d.
   4. Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If yous find information like to "to submit manufactures, ship three copies…", the journal is probably peer-reviewed. In this case, y'all are inferring that the publication is then going to send the multiple copies of the commodity to the journal's reviewers. This may not e'er be the case, then relying upon this criterion alone may prove inaccurate.
   5. If you exercise not see this type of argument in the showtime event of the journal that y'all look at, examine the remaining journals to encounter if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this data in only a single upshot a year.
   6. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the commodity format approximate the following - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, determination, and references? Are the articles written past scholarly researchers in the field that the journal pertains to? Is advertisement non-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yes to all these questions , the periodical may very well exist peer-reviewed. This determination would be strengthened by having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If yous answered these questions no, the periodical is probably non peer-reviewed.
4. Notice the official spider web site on the internet, and check to see if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be careful to use the official site (often located at the journal publisher'southward web site), and, even so, information could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If you have used the previous four methods in trying to determine if an commodity is from a peer-reviewed journal and are nonetheless unsure, speak to your instructor.

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

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