How Do I Know if an Essay Is Peer Reviewed
How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals
In many cases professors will require that students utilize articles from "peer-reviewed" journals. Sometimes the phrases "refereed journals" or "scholarly journals" are used to draw the aforementioned type of journals. But what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) journal manufactures, and why do kinesthesia crave their use?
Three categories of information resources:
- Newspapers and magazines containing news - Manufactures are written past reporters who may or may non be experts in the field of the commodity. Consequently, articles may contain incorrect information.
- Journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals — Although the manufactures are written by "experts," whatsoever particular "skilful" may have some ideas that are really "out there!"
- Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Articles are written by experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in the journal in order to ensure the commodity's quality. (The article is more probable to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In well-nigh cases the reviewers do non know who the writer of the commodity is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the good.
Helpful hint!
Not all information in a peer-reviewed journal is really refereed, or reviewed. For instance, editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, and other types of information don't count every bit manufactures, and may not be accepted by your professor.
How do you determine whether an article qualifies as being a peer-reviewed journal article?
Kickoff, you demand to be able to place which journals are peer-reviewed. There are generally four methods for doing this
- Limiting a database search to peer-reviewed journals but.
Some databases allow yous to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals simply. For case, Academic Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may have to go to an "advanced" or "expert" search screen to do this. Remember, many databases do non allow you to limit your search in this way. - Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to make up one's mind if the journal is indicated as beingness peer-reviewed.
If you lot cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will need to check to meet if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This can be washed by searching the database Ulrichsweb.com. Get to the alphabetical listing of databases and click on the "U". Select Ulrichsweb.com. Information technology helps to type in the exact title of the source periodical including whatsoever initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If you don't find the journal you are interested in, you lot may want to employ Method 3 below. If your journal title IS displayed, check to run into if the journal is indicated as being refereed by having the symbol
- Examining the publication to see if it is peer-reviewed.
If by using the first two methods you were unable to identify if a periodical (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, you lot may then need to examine the periodical physically or expect at boosted pages of the journal online to determine if information technology is peer-reviewed. This method is not always successful with resources available only online. The following steps are suggested:- Locate the journal in the Library or online, then identify the most current entire year's issues.
- Locate the masthead of the publication. This frequently consists of a box towards either the front or the end of the periodical, and contains publication data such as the editors of the journal, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription cost and similar data.
- Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If so, you're done! If not, movement on to step d.
- Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting manufactures to the publication. If you find information similar to "to submit articles, ship three copies…", the periodical is probably peer-reviewed. In this case, y'all are inferring that the publication is then going to transport the multiple copies of the article to the journal'south reviewers. This may not always exist the case, so relying upon this criterion alone may evidence inaccurate.
- If you lot practice non encounter this type of statement in the outset issue of the periodical that you look at, examine the remaining journals to see if this data is included. Sometimes publications volition include this information in but a single issue a year.
- Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format approximate the post-obit - abstruse, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references? Are the articles written past scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advert non-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yep to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This determination would be strengthened by having met the previous benchmark of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you lot answered these questions no, the journal is probably not peer-reviewed.
- Find the official web site on the internet, and check to see if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be conscientious to use the official site (oft located at the journal publisher's spider web site), and, even then, information could potentially exist "inaccurate."
Helpful hint!
If y'all have used the previous iv methods in trying to determine if an article is from a peer-reviewed journal and are notwithstanding unsure, speak to your teacher.
Source: https://www.angelo.edu/library/handouts/peerrev.php