HNFE 2014 Research Resources: Peer Reviewed Articles

If you're looking for a research article from a peer reviewed journal, once you identify whether or not the journal is peer reviewed, make sure the article you select presents a research study, rather than just an editorial or commentary! 

Is it peer reviewed?

Trying to figure out if the journal that published the article you have is peer reviewed?  Here are some steps you can follow to determine that!

1. Check the journal's website, and see if it refers to using the peer review process.

2. Search the journal title in Ulrich's Periodical Directory, a database that will give you all sorts of information about a journal, including whether or not it uses the peer review process.

  • Look for this symbol symbol showing a referee shirt to indicate a 'refereed' or 'peer reviewed' journal by your article's journal title in the Ulrich's Directory

3. It's also a good idea to read the article closely, and see if it adheres to rigorous research principles!

What is Peer Review?

Peer reviewed articles may also be called "scholarly" or "refereed."  The term peer review refers to an editorial process in which experts from a particular discipline scrutinize articles before they are published by a journal.  Watch the video below for a good overview of what these articles are, and why you should know about and use them.

TIP: If you're looking for a research article from a peer reviewed journal, make sure the article you select presents a research study, rather than just an editorial or commentary! 

 

Many thanks to our friends at NC State University Libraries: Anne Burke, Andreas Orphanides, Hyun-Duck Chung, Daria Dorafshar, Kyle Langdon, and Kim Duckett, for creating such a fantastic (3 min) video! (License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license.)

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