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EDPS 270: Find research articles on your topic

What is peer review?

When your instructor discusses the research process, there are lots of terms you might hear, including ‘scholarly’ ‘academic,’ and ‘peer-reviewed.’

Academic or scholarly journals are publications geared toward researchers, scholars, or practitioners within specific fields. The articles are written by people with credentials in their fields, and the contents of the journal went through a review process.

Review processes help ensure that articles include valid research data and methodology for specific fields. Sometimes, review is done by an editor or group of editors.

Some journals go through an additional process called ‘peer review.’ Peer review means that article submissions to a particular journal are shared with other scholars in the field, who volunteer to review the work and make sure that it measures up to standards within their discipline.

Peer review is usually considered the most rigorous form of review. Among academic journals, only a certain percentage follow the peer review process. To find out more about how to tell if an article is academic or not, and if it is peer reviewed, check out the information in the slideshow below.

  • For a quick introduction to peer review, check out this video from the NCSU Libraries.

Is it a peer-reviewed article?

Title slide: Is it a peer-reviewed article? (Use the arrows to the right and left to navigate)
Some scholarly articles go through a rigorous publishing process called peer review. So how can you tell if an article has gone through this process? Step 1: Check the database’s tools to see if it tells you that the article was published in a peer-reviewed journal. If that doesn't work, then go on to step 2.
Step 2: Go to the journal’s website to see if they describe their publishing process as a peer-review process. If that doesn't work, then go on to step 3.
Step 3: Check the tool Ulrichsweb (available through the Libraries’ databases page) to see if the journal is peer-reviewed.
Check the database’s tools to see if it tells you that the article was published in a peer-reviewed journal. In some databases, you can click on the journal title to see more information about the journal.
Image shows the record for the journal within the database, showing a Yes in the Peer Reviewed field. In this case, the database includes information about the journal’s review process.
Step 2: Go to the journal’s website to see if they describe their publishing process as a peer-review process. Image shows a screenshot of part of the American Psychological Association website. For example, this description of the journal American Psychologist on the publisher’s website shows that it is a peer-reviewed publication.
Image of the Libraries' databases webpage. Step 3: Check the tool Ulrichsweb (available through the Libraries’ databases page) to see if the journal is peer-reviewed. On the databases page, select Ulrichsweb.com
Image of Ulrichsweb homepage. On Ulrichsweb, type in the title of the journal and search.
Image of search results in Ulrichsweb. In the search results, you may see multiple formats of the journal. The format shouldn’t matter; just make sure the publisher is the same as the journal you are looking for.
Image of journal record in Ulrichsweb. After selecting the journal, you will see a Yes or No in the Refereed field. Refereed is another word for peer-reviewed. So it’s clear that American Psychologist is a peer-reviewed journal.
Review of the options for checking to see if a journal is peer-reviewed: check the database's tools; go to the journal's website; and check the tool Ulrichsweb. If you have trouble with any of these options, contact us for help using Ask a Librarian through the Libraries' website.

Is it a peer-reviewed article? (PowerPoint version)