Peer Reviewed or Not How Do I Know

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 aforementioned type of journals. Only what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) periodical manufactures, and why do faculty require their employ?

Three categories of information resources:

• Newspapers and magazines containing news - Articles are written past reporters who may or may non be experts in the field of the article. Consequently, articles may incorporate incorrect information.
• Journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals — Although the manufactures are written past "experts," any particular "expert" may have some ideas that are actually "out there!"
• Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Manufactures are written by experts and are reviewed past several other experts in the field before the article is published in the journal in order to ensure the article's quality. (The article is more likely to exist scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In most cases the reviewers do not know who the author of the article is, so that the commodity succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the expert.

Helpful hint!

Not all data in a peer-reviewed journal is actually refereed, or reviewed. For example, editorials, letters to the editor, volume reviews, and other types of information don't count as manufactures, and may non exist accepted by your professor.

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

First, yous need to be 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 lot to limit searches for manufactures to peer reviewed journals only. For instance, Bookish Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you lot may have to get to an "advanced" or "skilful" search screen to exercise this. Remember, many databases do not allow you lot to limit your search in this way.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the journal is indicated equally being peer-reviewed.
   If you cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will demand to check to see if the source of an commodity is a peer-reviewed journal. This tin exist done past 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 any initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If y'all don't find the journal you are interested in, yous may want to utilize Method 3 below. If your journal championship IS displayed, check to see if the journal is indicated every bit being refereed by having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to run across if it is peer-reviewed.
   If past using the first two methods you were unable to identify if a periodical (and an commodity therein) is peer-reviewed, you may then need to examine the periodical physically or look at additional pages of the periodical online to determine if it is peer-reviewed. This method is not always successful with resources available only online. The following steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, then identify the about current entire year'south issues.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This frequently consists of a box towards either the front or the end of the periodical, and contains publication data such as the editors of the periodical, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription cost and like data.
   3. Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If so, y'all're done! If non, motion on to stride d.
   4. Cheque in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If you lot detect information similar to "to submit articles, send iii 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 article to the journal's reviewers. This may not always be the example, so relying upon this criterion alone may prove inaccurate.
   5. If you do not meet this type of statement in the first issue of the periodical that yous look at, examine the remaining journals to encounter if this data is included. Sometimes publications volition include this data in only a single issue a year.
   6. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format approximate the following - abstruse, literature review, methodology, results, decision, 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 yous answered yes to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This decision would exist strengthened past having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you answered these questions no, the journal is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Find the official web site on the cyberspace, and check to run into if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be careful to utilise the official site (often located at the journal publisher's web site), and, even and so, data could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

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

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

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