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This English research guide will help you find relevant materials using library resources.

What is Peer-Review and How to Find it

What is a Peer-Reviewed Article? 

Scholarly journals are also called academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed journals. Strictly speaking, peer-reviewed journals refer only to those scholarly journals that submit articles to several other scholars, experts, or academics (peers) in the field for review and comment. These reviewers must agree that the article represents properly conducted original research or writing before it can be published.

Adapted from Olin Library Reference, Research & Learning Services, Cornell University Library

How to Find Peer-Reviewed Articles Using OneSearch

Once you run a search with OneSearch, you can filter your results list to show ONLY peer-reviewed articles.  Click the Scholarly Journals filter on the left-hand side of your results, as shown below, and then hit the Apply Filters button to reduce your results to only peer-reviewed, or scholarly journal, articles.

OneSearch Scholarly Journals filter screenshot

 

Quick Tip!

Beware:  Reviews of books or articles in Scholarly Journals may be tagged as peer-reviewed, and show up in your scholarly journals filtered list, but reviews do not include original research and are typically not accepted as research material.

Popular Sources v. Peer-Reviewed Sources

Popular Sources

Peer-Reviewed Sources

 

About Popular magazine and newspaper articles do not undergo peer review. The purpose of these publications is to provide general information, entertain, and sometimes sell products.  Use popular interest journals if you only require general information about a topic. Do not expect to find substantial detail or in-depth analysis. Scholarly journals are often refereed to as peer-reviewed, academic or refereed journals. They contain articles that have undergone a review process by selected experts in the field before being accepted for publication.  The purpose of these journals is to report or make research available to the scholarly world.  Use scholarly journals if you need verifiable and highly credible information.
Appearance Eye-catching cover
Pictures and illustrations in color
Glossy paper
Usually plain cover
May contain graphs, charts or case studies
Plain paper
Audience Non-professionals, general public
Written in non-technical language
Professors, scholars, researchers, or students
Written in the technical language of the field
Authors Journalists or professional writers Researchers, scholars, faculty
Content

Personality/celebrity, news, and general interest articles
Wide variety of subjects
Articles written by staff, may be unsigned

Report original research, discoveries, or experimentation on specific topics
Publish research projects, their methodology, and significance
Articles written by contributing authors, with institution indicated
Advertisements Many Few or none
Reviewers Reviewed by editors Reviewed by editors, peers, and referees
Publisher Commercial Professional associations, academic institutions, commercial publisher
Frequency Published on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis Published on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis
Documentation Few or no bibliographic references Bibliographic references (footnotes, end notes, etc.)
Examples

People

Los Angeles Times

Journal of Food Science and Technology
Journal of Health Care Management

Source: http://libguides.utoledo.edu/journalvsmagazine

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