How to Tell if a Scholarly Journal Is Peer Reviewed

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 same type of journals. But what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) journal articles, and why do kinesthesia require their use?

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 contain incorrect information.
• Journals containing manufactures written by academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by "experts," any particular "expert" may have some ideas that are really "out there!"
• Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Articles are written by experts and are reviewed past several other experts in the field before the commodity is published in the journal in guild to ensure the article'southward quality. (The commodity is more than likely to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In nearly cases the reviewers exercise not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the expert.

Helpful hint!

Non all information in a peer-reviewed journal is actually refereed, or reviewed. For case, editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, and other types of information don't count as manufactures, and may not be accustomed by your professor.

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

First, y'all need to be able to place which journals are peer-reviewed. At that place are generally four methods for doing this

1. Limiting a database search to peer-reviewed journals merely.
   Some databases allow yous to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. For example, Academic Search Complete has this characteristic on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may take to go to an "advanced" or "expert" search screen to do this. Remember, many databases do not allow you to limit your search in this way.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the journal is indicated as beingness peer-reviewed.
   If you cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will demand to cheque to come across if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed periodical. This can be washed 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 whatsoever initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If y'all don't find the journal yous are interested in, you may want to utilize Method 3 beneath. If your journal title IS displayed, bank check to run across if the journal is indicated equally being refereed by having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to encounter if it is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the first two methods you were unable to identify if a journal (and an commodity therein) is peer-reviewed, y'all may then need to examine the periodical physically or look at additional pages of the journal online to make up one's mind if it is peer-reviewed. This method is non always successful with resource available only online. The following steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, then identify the most electric current entire year'southward issues.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oftentimes consists of a box towards either the front or the end of the periodical, and contains publication data such equally the editors of the periodical, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription toll and similar information.
   3. Does the journal say that information technology is peer-reviewed? If and so, you're done! If non, move on to stride d.
   4. Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting manufactures to the publication.  If you observe information similar to "to submit articles, send three copies…", the periodical is probably peer-reviewed. In this example, 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 case, so relying upon this criterion alone may bear witness inaccurate.
   5. If you do not see this type of statement in the offset event of the journal that you look at, examine the remaining journals to see if this information 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 post-obit - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, decision, and references? Are the manufactures written by scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertisement not-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yes to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This determination would be strengthened past having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you answered these questions no, the periodical is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Discover the official web site on the internet, and cheque to see if it states that the periodical is peer-reviewed. Be careful to utilise the official site (often located at the journal publisher'due south web site), and, even then, data could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

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

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

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