What are peer-reviewed articles?
Your instructor has asked you to find an article in a scholarly (or professional or refereed or peer-reviewed) journal.
Scholarly journals differ from popular magazines and trade journals/magazines in a number of ways.
A primary difference between scholarly journals and other types of journals and magazines is that articles in these journals undergo a "peer review" process before they are published. What does this mean? Peer review is the process by which an author's peers, recognized researchers in the field, read and evaluate a paper (article) submitted for publication and recommend whether the paper should be published, revised, or rejected.
Peer review is a widely accepted indicator of quality scholarship in a discipline or field. Articles accepted for publication through a peer review process meet the discipline's expected standards of expertise. Peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals are scholarly journals that only publish articles that have passed through this review process. (From San-Deigo State University Library)
How to find them in the library databases?
When searching library databases, look out for the Filters/Limiters menu. Most likely you will find one of the following tools under these menus:
- Scholarly Journals
- Peer Reviewed Journals
- Academic Journals
Example in ProQuest Databases:
Example in EBSCO databases:
Example in Points of View Reference Center (EBSCO)
