What is a peer-reviewed journal article?

What is a peer-reviewed journal article?

Peer-reviewed journal articles are published in scholarly periodicals using a process requiring that each article submitted for publication is judged (reviewed) by an independent panel of experts within a field a study. Articles not approved by a majority of these peers are not accepted for publication by the journal. Authors may receive a conditional acceptance on a submitted manuscript, which means that publication is contingent on the author making changes as suggested by reviewers. Peer-reviewed articles are also referred to as "refereed articles."

How can you tell if an article is peer-reviewed?

Peer-reviewed journals can be identified by their editorial statements or instructions to authors (usually in the first few pages of the journal or at the end), and also by consulting Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, available at UNT Libraries' electronic resources site: http://irservices.library.unt.edu

When searching full-text databases, a search can be limited to peer-reviewed or refereed sources simply by checking "full text" box and selecting journal title of interest. Other common characteristics of a scholarly, peer-reviewed, or refereed journal:

• the purpose of the article is to share research results with other scholars
• formal in format
• sources are cited with footnotes or a bibliography at the end of the article, usually quite lengthy
• authors are scholars and researchers in the field and are identified as such
• publisher may be a professional organization, research institution; usually not-for-profit
• very little advertising (any advertising is geared toward subject discipline)
• graphics are usually statistical illustrations, in black and white