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6.5.1: Peer-reviewed and scholarly articles

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    What is “peer review” anyway?

    Scholarly articles and other scholarly works are written for academic or professional audiences. Scholarly works almost always have identifiable authors - but those authors are not necessarily experts. Scholarly works typically cite their sources, are edited, and are published by academic publishers.

    Peer-reviewed articles are scholarly articles, written by experts, that have undergone an extremely rigorous editing and fact-checking process. It goes like this: a researcher has a new article she wants to publish in a scholarly journal. Before the journal will accept her research they want to guarantee it is credible, can be replicated, and will substantively add to the existing body of knowledge in the discipline. The journal sends the article to a panel of other researchers and experts who read her article and review her research methods and findings. Hence peer (the researcher's colleagues) review (verify the research is valid). After the panel suggests revisions, the author makes changes, and the panel eventually approves the article which gets published in a scholarly journal (and lives inside the library database where it waits for a student to discover it).

    Here is an example of a peer-reviewed journal's criteria for publication and process of peer review(opens in new window). Pretty intense!

    Many scholarly articles are peer-reviewed, although it is possible that they are not. Some instructors ask for "scholarly" or "academic" articles and mean "peer-reviewed articles," while others don't have as strict of a definition. It is always best for you to clarify with your instructor what their definition is, as different teachers have different standards. For this class, I would like a scholarly article but am not concerned about whether it is peer-reviewed or not. However, you will need to know if it is peer-reviewed or not.

    A helpful process for discerning the genre of an article you've discovered is to ask a few key questions about it:

    • Who is the intended audience (researchers, students, general audience)?
    • Does the article require in-depth knowledge? Are there references?
    • Who is the author?
    • Who is the publisher?

    More about peer-reviewed articles

    Whereas popular sources are meant for a general audience, peer-reviewed sources are written by researchers/scholars for researchers/students. They are usually not published freely on the web, rather, they can only be found in library databases. Some core characteristics of peer-reviewed articles are:

    • Information is organized into sections: Abstract, introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and references.
    • Long and in-depth; 10-20+ pages is normal.
    • A references or works cited page.
    • Often has multiple authors, all of whom are experts in their fields.
    • Few, if any, images or advertisements (graphs and tables may be present).
    • Specialized, field-specific language.

    How to read peer-reviewed articles

    Peer-reviewed articles can be complex and difficult for students to read and interpret. CCC Library has a short, useful guide(opens in new window) with tips to aid in the effective skimming of a peer-reviewed article to determine whether it is truly relevant to your topic. Far too often, students merely select a peer-reviewed article that contains one of their keywords in the title and assume it works without reading or comprehending the article at all. Follow these rules of thumb so that you learn not just how to find one that sounds relevant, but how to read and understand the article so you are truly engaged with scholarly literature.

    • Read the abstract! The abstract is a summary of what the piece is about. It's the first indicator of relevance to your topic.
    • Read relevant sections, such as the introduction or discussion, before diving into the whole article. If after reading these you feel it fits your topic, read the whole thing.
    • Read the references/works cited! A super-smart way to shortcut your research is to mine the citations used in articles you really like. Chances are, the articles the author used will also help your research.

    Peer-reviewed articles are published with the intent of sharing new research and information from specialized fields with researchers, professionals, and students. The process of peer review helps to ensure that each published article is unique, accurate, credible, and objective. Peer-reviewed articles can be published in print journals, online journals, and academic and research organizations’ websites.

    6.5.1: Peer-reviewed and scholarly articles is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Clackamas Community College Library.