Peer-Reviewed Articles: An Introduction

A peer-reviewed, or refereed, article is one that has been critiqued by scholars in the field who consider it worthy of publication.  This evaluation process ensures quality control.

Common characteristics of most peer-reviewed articles include:

• evaluation by the journal's editor, editorial board, or advisory panel of scholars
• formal appearance
• graphs, tables, and/or diagrams
• abstract that summarizes the research discussed in the article
• specialized language or discipline-specific jargon
• narrow or subject-specific focus
• original research, experimentation, and/or in-depth study
• little or no advertising

To find peer-reviewed articles:

• Search article databases to which the library subscribes.  When searching EbscoHost or ProQuest, apply a "scholarly" and/or "peer-reviewed" filter to your search results.  When searching JSTOR or the American Chemical Society Journals Database, nearly all of your search results should be peer-reviewed.
• Search free scholarly article databases such as Google Scholar and PubMed and use the previously discussed characteristics to assess whether their articles are peer-reviewed.
• Search individual journals to which the library subscribes and use the previously discussed characteristics to assess whether their articles are peer-reviewed.
• Ask a librarian for assistance.