Library FAQ

Peer Reviewed: A Definition

A peer reviewed article is one that has been reviewed by other experts or scholars in the field who judge the article for quality and new contributions to the discipline. Other words that may be used to describe peer reviewed articles or the journals that publish them include: academic, scholarly, or refereed.

Searching for Peer Reviewed Articles

The best place to start your search is in a library database.

Strategy #1: Limit your search to only peer reviewed articles

• Look for a checkbox, either on the search screen or the results page that limits the search to scholarly, peer reviewed articles only.
• Search in a database that only contains scholarly or peer reviewed articles.

Strategy #2: Find out more about the journal your article was published in

• If you are in a database, check to see whether you can click on the journal title for more information about the journal.
• Search Google with the title of the journal to look for an editorial policy page or a page for authors to find out if the journal uses a peer review process.

For More Information

For more information about scholarly or peer reviewed articles, including details about determining if specific journals use a peer reviewed process when evaluating articles for publications, see the Scholarly or Peer Reviewed Articles page.