Peer Review
Heather VanDyne
When going through the research process, one of the things you will see (or be asked to look for) is a scholarly or academic source. These are often terms used by instructors when giving their students assignment instructions. When you are tasked with providing scholarly sources, it typically means a source that has undergone peer review.
What is Peer Review?
Peer review is a pre-publication review provided by experts other than the author of a research or literature review article and the editor of the research journal to which the article has been submitted for publication. The experts assess the article, going beyond simple fact-checking. A peer reviewer seeks to ensure the article is presented in the context of what is already known, that the methods the researcher used are the right ones, and that the article contributes to the field by reporting new and important content. Based on their assessments, as there are usually between 2 or 3 peer reviewers, an editor may accept the article or turn it down for publication. If it is accepted, the author may be asked to make minor changes.
How do I know if a source is peer-reviewed?
As peer-reviewed publications are more likely to be trusted and used by students and researchers, many will tell you within the journal or periodical's description or the About page of their website. Simply look for a peer review policy under the journal’s publication details or its aim & scope. If you are looking at a database or library catalog, there is usually an icon or label indicating a source is a peer-reviewed article.
Locating peer-reviewed sources.
Many academic and scholarly databases will contain a peer-review, or Peer Review Only as part of their advanced search features. You can also utilize this feature in a database’s results page, typically found above or to the left of the search results. Non-academic search tools, such as Google Scholar, don’t have a filter for peer-reviewed articles, and should be verified to ensure it did come from a peer-reviewed publication. To do this, you can look at your selected journal’s editorial page to see if they have a peer-review policy.
Sources that contain information involved in the scholarly conversation that takes place primarily among academics at conferences, presentations and in books, blogs, pre-prints, and journal articles.
An article created by academics for research and educational purposes. They are also typically found in college and university databases.
A pre-publication review provided by experts other than the author of a research or literature review article and the editor of the research journal to which the article has been submitted for publication. The experts assess the article, including making sure the article is presented in the context of what is already known, that the methods the researcher used are the right ones, and that the article contributes to the field by reporting new and important content. Based on that assessment, the editor may accept the article or turn it down for publication. If it is accepted, the author is usually asked to make changes. Peer review increases the credibility of many scholarly articles
Publications that come out periodically (usually quarterly) and most often contain some commentary, reviews of scholarly books, and scholarly research articles that report new research or reviews of previous scholarly research. The reviews of previous research are called literature reviews and, along with the reports of new research, are generally the only scholarly portions of journals and the only portions that get peer reviewed. Many, but not all, journals are peer reviewed, which means that experts in the field assess the scholarship and contributions made by submitted research articles and suggest corrections before the journal will be willing to publish them. Each journal tends to be focused on a specific discipline or sub-discipline. Sometimes professional associations make the journals they publish available to their members. But most journals are very expensive, and for many scholars, it is libraries that make them available. While journals used to be print publications, today most are digital-only publications.
any information resource published in periodic issues, such as a newspaper, magazine, or journal
Feedback/Errata