What Is Peer Review?
In academic publishing, the goal of peer
review is to assess the quality of articles submitted for publication in a
scholarly journal. Before an article is deemed appropriate to be published in a
peer-reviewed journal, it must undergo the following process:
The
author of the article must submit it to the journal editor who forwards the
article to experts in the field. Because the reviewers specialize in the same
scholarly area as the author, they are considered the author’s peers (hence
“peer review”).
These impartial reviewers are charged with
carefully evaluating the quality of the submitted manuscript.
The
peer reviewers check the manuscript for accuracy and assess the validity of the
research methodology and procedures.
If
appropriate, they suggest revisions. If they find the article lacking in
scholarly validity and rigor, they reject it.
·
Because a peer-reviewed journal will not publish articles that fail to
meet the standards established for a given discipline, peer-reviewed articles
that are accepted for publication exemplify the best research practices in a
field.
Features of a Peer-Reviewed Article
When you are determining whether or not the
article you found is a peer-reviewed article, you should consider the following
questions:
Is the journal in which you found the
article published or sponsored by a professional scholarly society,
professional association, or university academic department? Does it describe
itself as a peer-reviewed publication? (To know that, check the journal's
website).
Did you find a citation for it in one of
the databases that includes scholarly
publications? (Criminal Justice Abstracts, EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete,
PsycINFO, etc.)? Read the database
description to see if it includes scholarly publications.
Did you limit your search to scholarly or
peer-reviewed publications?
Is there an abstract (summary) at the
beginning of the article?
Is the tone of the article thoughtful,
restrained and serious?
Does the article have footnotes or
citations of other sources?
Does the article have a bibliography or
list of references at the end?
Are the author's credentials listed?
Is the topic of the article narrowly
focused and explored in depth?
Is the article based on either original
research or authorities in the field (as opposed to personal opinion)?
Is the article written for readers with
some prior knowledge of the subject?
If your field is social or natural science,
is the article divided into sections with headings such as those listed below?
- Introduction
- Theory or Background
- Methods
- Discussion
- Literature review
- Subjects
- Results
- Conclusion
How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles?
The easiest and fastest way to find
peer-reviewed articles is to search the online library databases, many of which
include peer-reviewed journals. To make sure your results come from
peer-reviewed (also called "scholarly" or "academic")
journals, do the following:
Read the database description to determine
if it features peer-reviewed articles.
When you search for articles, choose the
Advanced Search option. On the search screen, look for a check-box that allows
you to limit your results to peer-reviewed only.
If you didn't check off the
"peer-reviewed articles only" box, try to see if your results can
organized by source. For example, the database Criminal Justice Abstracts will
let you choose the tab "Peer-Reviewed Journals."
Perry, A. (22 de 05 de
2017). Lloyd Sealy Library. Obtenido de Evaluating Information Sources: What Is A Peer-Reviewed
Article?: http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/c.php?g=288333&p=1922599
