Peer Review - what is it, and how do I find peer reviewed articles?

The terms "Scholarly," "Peer-Reviewed" and "Refereed" are often used interchangeably.  However, while all peer-reviewed journals ARE scholarly, NOT ALL scholarly journals are peer-reviewed or refereed!  As discussed in a previous tab, "Peer Review" is something quite specific.  A journal in a particular field may be written for academic use, but the editorial process for selecting articles may not include peer review. Yes, peer review can be very confusing!

So, how do you determine whether a journal is peer-reviewed? One way is to let the database help you select such journals. Many of our databases have a specific check-box for limiting your results to only peer-reviewed material. Also, a few databases like JSTOR and Science Direct contain all or nearly all peer reviewed journals. But most general databases, such as the EBSCOHost databases, have a mix of peer reviewed content and non-peer reviewed content, as well as other non-peer-reviewed materials like magazines, newspapers, conference papers, book chapters and reports, so that you must limit your search. Here are some tips for limiting your search results to peer reviewed journal articles in two major database vendor products available to UAS students and faculty:

EbscoHost Databases (This tip should work for any EbscoHost file, but this example is taken from Academic Search Premier):

In the Advanced Search options, simply check off the "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" box below the search box(es) before you do your search to eliminate anything that is not defined by EBSCO as a Peer-Reviewed Journal:

ProQuest is another family of databases which UAS students and faculty are able to access.  You can search all of the ProQuest databases all at once, or just one or two at a time.  Like the EBSCOHost databases, there is a box that a searcher can check so that all of your search results are peer reviewed articles.  See below.

Two other databases available to UAS users are JSTOR and ScienceDirect.  Unlike EBSCOHost and ProQuest, which offer both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed content, the content of both JSTOR and ScienceDirect is almost entirely scholarly/peer reviewed.