How do I know if my article is peer-reviewed?
Answer
Peer-reviewed articles are those that are reviewed by multiple experts from their related field(s), known as their peers, and then published in academic journals. This process is intended to ensure quality scholarship and sound methodologies, practices, and research.
There are academic journals for every subject area. The primary purpose of scholarly journals is to represent and disseminate high quality research and scholarly discussions among scholars (faculty, researchers, students) within, and across, different academic disciplines.
Scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles can be identified by the following characteristics:
- Author(s): They are typically written by professors, researchers, or other scholars who specialize in the field and are often identified by the academic institution at which they work.
- Purpose: They are published by professional associations, university publishers, or other academic publishers to report research results or discuss ongoing research in detail.
- Language: They are highly specialized and may use technical language.
- Layout: They will cite their sources and include footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical citations and/or a list of bibliographic references.
- Content: They may include graphs and tables, and explain their methodologies and research process.
Tips to find scholarly peer-reviewed articles:
1. Limit your search to peer-reviewed journals only. Some databases allow you to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. For example, Academic Search Complete has a check-box "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Articles" filter, which can help narrow down your search.
2. Use Ulrich's Web to see if a journal is peer reviewed and still active.
If you still aren't sure, email askalibrarian@seattleu.edu and we can help!