What is Peer Review?
Authors who wish to publish their research submit the paper to an academic journal.
If the academic journal uses a peer review system then the journal editor sends the article to researchers and scholars who are in the same discipline as the author (the author's peers).
Their job is to review the paper in order to determine if it should be published as an article in the journal.
Why should I care about Peer Review?
Any paper that passes the peer-review process can be considered to have the highest level of academic credibility.
However you will still need to consider the other elements of the Who, Why, When, Where, How and What evaluation criteria. Using relevant and current peer reviewed journal articles to complete your assignments and projects strengthens your arguments.
created by NCSU Library, North Carolina
Where can I find peer reviewed articles?
Peer reviewed journal articles can be found on the library databases. Peer reviewed journal articles can also be found through the Directory of Open Access Journals website and Google Scholar.
Some databases allow you to narrow your search to return only peer reviewed results. This process differs from database to database and is often as easy as ticking a box that says Peer Reviewed.
How do I verify whether a journal is peer-reviewed?
One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is to go to the journal information page on the database or the journal website.
This will give information about the journal, how authors can submit an article, and what the process is for getting published.
Look for the link that says information for authors, instructions for authors, submitting an article or something similar. It will state here whether or not there is peer review process in place.
Scholarly, Popular or Trade?
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Trade Journal/ Magazine |
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Content created by William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University. Reused and adapted here with their kind permission.
Remember: If you are trying to decide whether to use an information source in your assignment you can apply the Who, Why, When, Where, How and What evaluation criteria to help you make your decision.
The Content/Source Type Filter
Most library databases contain a filter option to allow you to choose which type of material you would like to view in your search results.
This filter can be applied before you perform the search using the Advanced Search feature or alternatively, if you already have a list of search results, you still have the option of narrowing down your search to a particular content type by clicking on the desired refinement option.
Citation Analysis
Citation Analysis or citation tracking is a way to see the impact of an article in its field based on the number of times it has been cited by others. As well as assessing an articles impact, citation analysis can help you identify seminal works in a particular field or topic area and also assess an individual authors’ impact. Once you have identified an influential article you can use citation analysis to find more recent, related articles that cite the landmark article.
The list below contains some of the databases that have citation analysis tools. Check the database you use for links to sources that cite your article of interest. In order to get a sense of an articles’ importance based on how many times it has been cited by others, you should use the citation tool in a few databases as no one single database will account for all journal articles that have cited the work. Remember that it takes time for a published article to be cited by others. A recently published article needs time to be read, considered and responded to by researchers in the same field.
Some citation analysis tools