3 things every student should know before searching for peer reviewed articles

What is a Peer Reviewed Article?

Peer review is a process where a specialist reviews the work of others in the same field to determine
whether their work is worth publishing. The reviewer evaluates the research to make sure that it meets
the standards of given profession and that the included research was done properly. If the material is
not judged to meet the critical requirements it is rejected for publication (or the reviewers may send it
back to the writers for additional clarifications and changes).  (George, 2008)

It’s kind of like this but the writer is awarded with publication.

What is the difference between scholarly, refereed and peer reviewed journals?

It depends on who is asking, but for the most part these three terms are used interchangeably. While peer reviewed and refereed are different ways of describing the same process, scholarly

journals are different.

Scholarly journals do not necessarily go through the same rigorous process of examination that

peer reviewed items receive. The material published in these journals is by experts for experts.
This is why your instructor will mostly look the other way when these are used because they have
the exact look and feel of a peer reviewed article even though they are as highly verified before
publishing. Many of the databases that you will be using to find these articles do not distinguish
between these terms either.

How can I quickly find a peer reviewed article?

One of the quickest ways to find a peer reviewed article is to use Spartan Search from the main

library page. Enter in your keywords, wait for the results and then click on the “Scholarly
(Peer Reviewed) Journals” checkbox in the left hand column. Now you will only see articles from
peer reviewed publications.

One click shopping!

Spartan Search is not the only place that you can find these articles though. Most of our databases
have a limiter similar to Spartan Search (although maybe not as easy to find), so you can breathe
easy knowing that you are only getting the highest quality information for a scholarly journal.

Similar limiter, different database

Many of the databases in the health related fields only contain material from peer reviewed journals.
This does not mean that all of the articles are peer reviewed though. Sometimes a journal that has a
peer review process will also publish things like letters to the editor or some news items.

Scholarly articles look a bit different than other articles though. They usually have a title full of

technical speak that could have been shorten by about 5 to 10 words. They also usually have a
team of authors because research is a team sport.

And probably written with help from this guy...

You will also see lots of graphs and charts to break up the dense text and a handy works cited page
at the end to lead you to dozens of other similar research articles.

Remember to stop by the library and ask a librarian if you have trouble finding or identifying a peer

reviewed article.

Check the Spartan Search summary page to get more complete information about searching this

resource. [add link to soon to be created SS summary page]

References

George, M. W. (2008). The elements of library research : What every student needs to know Princeton,
N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2008.