Scholarly Peer-reviewed Articles

What are scholarly peer-reviewed articles?

• Usually published in scholarly journals
• Well-researched original articles on specialized topics written by scholars
• Author affiliation and contact details are provided
• There is an abstract at the beginning of peer-reviewed articles
• Contain in-text citations and a list of references at the end
• May include charts tables, graphs, and other statistical data
• Use subject-specific language that include technical terms unique to the field
• Presented in sections such as Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion
• Subjected to intense critiques by a team of subject specialists who are peers of the author(s)

How do you know if a journal contains peer-reviewed articles?

Google the name of the journal and on their website you will see if the journal articles are peer reviewed.
e.g.: Communication Research

Note:

• Scholarly peer-reviewed journals also include editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, and opinion pieces that are not peer-reviewed

• Some journals contain scholarly articles but they may not have been peer-reviewed.
  e.g.: Phi Delta Kappan

How do I to locate peer-reviewed articles?

Use online databases such as:

• Academic Search Complete - articles on a wide range of topics

• Project Muse - mainly full-text articles

Many databases allow you to limit your search to scholarly peer-reviewed articles.

To identify other online databases for your topic, go to http://library.umaine.edu/indexesdb/Indexes.asp

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Created by: Joe Fernandez | Revised: 02/01/2013