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You may have assignments that require you include information from “peer reviewed” articles. These articles are published in scholarly or academic journals after they have gone through a lengthy editorial process which usually involves the author making many revisions. The reviewers themselves are experts in the same field, and judge the strength of the article on the originality of the research, the methods used, and the validity of findings. The highest standard of peer review is “double-blind,” meaning that both the identity of the authors as well as the reviewers are kept anonymous in order to ensure that bias and subjectivity do not influence the process.

But be careful! Not all of the content in an academic journal is subject to peer review. There may be other content such as letters, opinion pieces, and book reviews that have been edited, but not necessarily gone through a formal peer review process.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

The following video describes the process of peer review. Click on this link if you prefer to read the transcript.

ACTIVITY: Summarize The Peer Review Process

But how can you, the researcher, recognize a peer reviewed article?

Fortunately,  most of our databases have a filter or limit which will help you find the right type of information. Various databases will use different terms: look for “scholarly” or “peer reviewed.”

There are other clues you can look for.