Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles!

Now that you know what a "scholarly article" is, let's learn about Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles! This presentation will cover: 1. What is a peer-reviewed journal? 2. How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed? ? Question 1: What is a Peer-Reviewed Journal? Peer review is an editing process used by some magazines and journals. The purpose of peer-review is to ensure that the articles published are high quality. How it works: 1. An author submits an article to a peer reviewed journal with the hopes that it will be published. 2. The journal gives copies of the article to a group of experts on the topic. 3. The experts read and review the article. They decide if the research seems like it was done well, check that the article provides new ideas about the topic, and make sure the article is appropriate for the journal. 4. The experts recommend whether the article should be published by the journal, revised to make it better, or rejected. Sometimes the peer-review process is "blind"... "Blind peer-review" means that the names of the article's author(s) are hidden from the reviewers. That way, the author doesn't know who was the reviewer, and the reviewer doesn't know who was the author. (this helps prevent friends from helping friends, or enemies from hurting enemies) Summary of question 1: The peer-review process helps to make the articles that are published by journals better quality! That's good news for researchers. Question 2: How would I know if an article is peer-reviewed? First, peer-reviewed articles will meet the same criteria as "scholarly articles". Let's review... Basic review of Scholarly Articles: 1. Lengthy articles, usually 5-40 pages long. 2. Written by an expert(s) in the field. 3. Contains a lot of references! 4. Will usually have "volume" and "issue" number in the citation. 5. Are written in an intellectual language style. It can't be scholarly if it doesn't have citations! Consulting the research of others builds the author's (researcher's) ethos. It shows that the author understands the important contributors to the topic, knows what is currently happening in the field of research, and realizes that he/she doesn't know everything there is to know about the topic! The authors often work at colleges, universities, or other research institutions. Do an internet search with the author's name in quotation marks, example "Jon Doe", to see if you can find out more about them. Learning where they work and what they study will help you to determine their authority in the topic. To be scholarly, an article must meet the majority of these criteria! Remember: There can be non-scholarly articles in scholarly journals. Common examples include editorials and book reviews. Remember... A peer-reviewed article is a scholarly article that goes further (it is reviewed by peers)! But how do we know for sure that it was peer-reviewed? the journal tells us. but how? 1. Some library databases allow you to limit your search results to "peer-reviewed only." Look for this option. For example: or... 2. If the database doesn't tell you, you may be able to find it on the journal's website. In the search engine of your choice (like google), type the title of the journal in quotation marks. Out of the search results, look for one that seems like it is from the publisher. The description for the link will explain the journal. On the website, look around to find information about the review policy or the editing process. 3. If you can't tell if it is peer-reviewed from the website, contact the library. We have a book that we can check. Summary of Question 2:For an article to be peer-reviewed, it must meet the criteria for being a scholarly article. To know that your scholarly article has been peer-reviewed: 1. Limit the search results in the library databases to "Peer-Reviewed" or "Refereed" (these two words both mean the same thing). If you can't limit your search results, do an internet search for the journal's homepage and look for information on the reviewing process. You can always contact the library with any questions. We have a book we can check to tell if the journal is peer-reviewed. Any questions? Please contact Millikin's Staley Library 217.424.6214 or email refdesk@millikin.edu Presentation created July 2011 by Librarian Debbie Campbell Peer Reviewed Journal Articles!