How Do I Check My Sources Are Peer Review

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

Three categories of information resources:

• Newspapers and magazines containing news - Manufactures are written by reporters who may or may not be experts in the field of the commodity. Consequently, manufactures may contain incorrect data.
• Journals containing articles written past academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by "experts," any item "good" may take some ideas that are really "out there!"
• 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 journal in order to ensure the commodity'due south quality. (The commodity is more likely to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In almost cases the reviewers do not know who the writer of the article is, then that the commodity succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the skillful.

Helpful hint!

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

How do you determine whether an article qualifies every bit being a peer-reviewed periodical article?

Showtime, you lot need to be able to identify which journals are peer-reviewed. There are by and large four methods for doing this

1. Limiting a database search to peer-reviewed journals only.
   Some databases allow y'all to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. For instance, Academic Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may have to go to an "advanced" or "expert" search screen to practice this. Remember, many databases do not allow y'all to limit your search in this mode.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the journal is indicated equally being peer-reviewed.
   If you lot cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, y'all will need to bank check to see if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed periodical. This can exist done past 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 title of the source journal including any initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If y'all don't discover the journal you are interested in, y'all may want to utilise Method iii below. If your journal title IS displayed, check to see if the periodical is indicated as existence refereed by having the symbol side by side to the title.
3. Examining the publication to see if information technology is peer-reviewed.
   If by using the first two methods you were unable to identify if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, you lot may then need to examine the journal physically or look at additional pages of the journal online to determine if information technology is peer-reviewed. This method is not always successful with resource available simply online. The following steps are suggested:
   1. Locate the journal in the Library or online, then identify the most current entire year's issues.
   2. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oftentimes consists of a box towards either the front or the finish of the periodical, and contains publication information such equally the editors of the journal, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription cost and similar information.
   3. Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If so, you're done! If not, motion on to step d.
   4. Bank check in and effectually the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication.  If you discover information like to "to submit articles, transport three 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 commodity to the periodical'due south reviewers. This may not e'er be the instance, so relying upon this benchmark alone may show inaccurate.
   5. If you do not see this type of statement in the get-go issue of the journal that you expect at, examine the remaining journals to see if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this information in only a single upshot a yr.
   6. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the commodity format approximate the following - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references? Are the articles written by scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertisement non-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are in that location references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yes to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This decision would be strengthened by 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. Notice the official web site on the cyberspace, and check to come across if information technology states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be careful to employ the official site (often located at the journal publisher's web site), and, even then, data could potentially be "inaccurate."

Helpful hint!

If yous have used the previous four methods in trying to determine if an commodity 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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