Peer Reviewed Journals Podcast Transcript
Peer reviewed journals contain articles which have been checked prior to publication. They are reviewed by experts in their field to ensure they are free of errors, scholarly in nature and meet certain criteria. If acceptable then the article is published, if not then the article is returned to the author with suggested amendments.
Peer-reviewed journals may also be called refereed journals or scholarly journals. Throughout your course, lecturers may ask you to use only peer reviewed or refereed journal articles for assignments. The Library has access to both peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed journals, so how can you tell the difference?
Sometimes this is easy because often a journal will state upfront that it is peer reviewed either on its website or inside the front cover with a statement like: "All articles are subject to peer review by leading authorities in the profession, ensuring that only the best articles and original research appear in the journal" and it will list the Editorial Board, or Peer Review Panel.
Other features that indicate that a journal is likely to be peer-reviewed include-
- reporting of original research or experimentation
- the journal is published by a professional organisation
- articles always cite sources, using footnotes and/or bibliographies
- there is probably little or no advertising in the journal
- the journal title may include words like - research, journal, quarterly, review
Another way to find peer-reviewed journals is to limit article searches to peer reviewed journals. Some databases like Proquest 5000 and Expanded Academic Index have a search filter which limits search results to peer reviewed articles. In other databases you should limit your search to "scholarly" or "research" articles to assist you in narrowing the results to articles that are likely to have been peer reviewed.
For more information contact your Library.