How Do I Know if an Article Was Peer Reviewed

How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals

In many cases professors will crave that students utilize articles from "peer-reviewed" journals. Sometimes the phrases "refereed journals" or "scholarly journals" are used to depict the same type of journals. But what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) periodical articles, and why practise kinesthesia require their use?

Three categories of information resources:

• Newspapers and magazines containing news - Articles are written by reporters who may or may not be experts in the field of the article. Consequently, manufactures may incorporate wrong data.
• Journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by "experts," whatever particular "expert" may have some ideas that are actually "out in that location!"
• Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Articles are written past experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in the periodical in social club to ensure the article's quality. (The article is more likely to be scientifically valid, attain reasonable conclusions, etc.) In nigh cases the reviewers do not know who the writer of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its ain merit, not the reputation of the expert.

Helpful hint!

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

How do yous make up one's mind whether an commodity qualifies equally being a peer-reviewed journal commodity?

First, you demand 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 to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. For case, Bookish 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. Call up, 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 every bit being peer-reviewed.
   If you cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you volition need to check to run into if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This tin can be done by searching the database Ulrichsweb.com. Get to the alphabetical listing of databases and click on the "U". Select Ulrichsweb.com. It helps to blazon in the exact championship of the source journal including any initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If you don't find the periodical you are interested in, you may want to use Method 3 beneath. If your journal title IS displayed, bank check to run across if the periodical is indicated as being refereed past having the symbol next to the title.
3. Examining the publication to come across if information technology is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the offset ii methods you were unable to identify if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, you may so demand to examine the journal physically or look at boosted pages of the periodical online to make up one's mind if information technology 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 most current entire year's problems.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oftentimes consists of a box towards either the front or the end of the journal, and contains publication information such as the editors of the periodical, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription cost and similar information.
   3. Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If then, you're washed! If non, move on to footstep d.
   4. Cheque in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If you notice data similar to "to submit manufactures, send three copies…", the periodical is probably peer-reviewed. In this case, y'all are inferring that the publication is then going to ship the multiple copies of the commodity to the periodical's reviewers. This may not ever be the case, and so relying upon this criterion alone may prove inaccurate.
   5. If you lot do non see this type of statement in the first issue of the journal that you look at, examine the remaining journals to run into if this information is included. Sometimes publications volition include this data in only a single effect 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 by scholarly researchers in the field that the journal pertains to? Is advertising non-real, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If y'all answered yep to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This determination would exist strengthened past having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you lot answered these questions no, the journal is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Find the official web site on the cyberspace, and check to see if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Exist careful to utilise the official site (often located at the periodical publisher'south web site), and, even and then, data could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If y'all 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 instructor.

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

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