Do-It-Yourself Library: Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed Articles

Peer-reviewed publications (sometimes referred to as scholarly, academic, or refereed) have gone through a review process by experts in the field before being published. These strategies can help you determine if an article is peer-reviewed.  

1. If you found the article in the library search tool/database, there may be some indicators of whether the article is scholarly. Most publications in "Academic Journals" have been peer reviewed. 

Note, however, that some articles in peer-reviewed journals may not actually be peer-reviewed: editorials, news items, and book reviews do not necessarily go through the same review process. A peer-reviewed article should be longer than just a couple of pages and should include a bibliography.

2. In many library databases, the journal title may be linked, as shown below. Clicking on it takes you to a page that may indicate whether the journal is scholarly, academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed.

3. You can also look up the journal name in the library database Ulrich's Global Serials Directory. Search for the journal title and find the correct entry in the results list. (There may be multiple versions of the same journal, but there also may be two different journals with the same title). Look to the left of the title, and if you find a referee shirt icon, then journal is peer-reviewed or refereed. 
 

4. The publisher's website for the journal should also indicate whether articles go through a peer review process.