How to Identify Peer-Reviewed Journals / Articles

You've been asked you to limit your research to peer reviewed articles. What does this mean?

Peer review is the process by which research is assessed for quality, relevancy, and accuracy. 

In a peer reviewed, or refereed journal, each manuscript submitted to the publisher is first reviewed anonymously by a group of experts, or peers, in the same field of study. These reviewers assess the quality of the research, the accuracy of the findings, and the relevancy of the research to the journal or profession.

Peer-reviewed articles:

• Are also known as scholarly or refereed articles
• Are written by experts in the field
• Are written for other researchers/scholars
• Are reviewed by the scholar's peers to determine whether they are high-quality pieces of work
• Use terms and language that are discipline-specific
• Usually include in-text citations and a bibliography of cited sources
• May include graphs, charts, etc., related to the topic
• Are published by a professional organization or society, university, research center, or scholarly press

Peer review is quality control, allowing you to trust the scholarship of the research. 

• All of the major journal citation databases (PubMed, Medline, Cinahl) provided by the Ascension Wisconsin Libraries include peer review journals, but not all journals/articles in those databases are peer-reviewed.   

                > Use the Peer Review filter (when available) to refine your results.  Learn how ...

• Examples that would NOT be considered peer-reviewed are: editorials, letters to the editor, opinion pieces, book reviews, blog posts, etc. 

• Articles on pre-print servers may be in the active process of being peer reviewed, but until they are officially published in a professional journal, consider them only half-baked.  Officially published articles may differ from preprints after changes and suggestions made in the peer review process.  

See the brand new Search Tips page on How to find Peer Review Articles for more information, including screenshots of the peer review filters in Cinahl and Ebsco's Medline.

 

Questions about access, contact Your Ascension Wisconsin Librarians: 

 Michele Matucheski        Kellee Selden