Peer Reviewed/Scholarly Journals

Scholarly journals have the following characteristics:

• articles are reviewed by a panel of experts before they are accepted for publication
• articles have footnotes and references
• articles often contain diagrams and charts but few glossy pictures
• articles are written by a scholar or specialist in the field
• articles report on original research or experimentation
• contain very limited advertising
• are often published by professional associations
• use terminology associated with the discipline

Video Tutorial: Finding Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Articles

Finding scholarly journals

Many of the indexes that the Library subscribes to support subject searches that limit results to peer reviewed articles.

If you are uncertain that the article you have found is scholarly, search for the title of the journal in Ulrich's Periodical Directory. The full record of the journal will indicate if the journal is peer-reviewed/refereed.