Communication

Spartan Articles Search

Journal Title Search (Example: Chronicle of Higher Education or JAMA)

What is Peer-review?

Peer-review is when a scholarly periodical requires that each article submitted for publication be judged by an independent panel of experts (scholarly or scientific peers). Articles not approved by a majority of these peers are not accepted for publication by the journal.

Peer-reviewed journals can be identified by their editorial statements or instructions to authors (usually in the first few pages of the journal or at the end). Many databases allow you to search for only "peer-reviewed" or "scholarly" articles.

Note: often your university instructors will expect you to use scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles. However, if you are not sure about the acceptability of an article, website, or other source get in touch with your faculty member.

Other common characteristics of scholarly, peer-reviewed, or refereed journal:

• Formal in format
• Sources are cited with footnotes or a bibliography at the end of the article
• Authors are scholars and researchers in the field and are identified as such
• Purpose of the article is to publish the results of research
• Publisher may be a professional organization, research institution; usually not-for-profit
• Very little advertising
• Graphics are usually statistical illustrations, in black-and-white

Using Interlibrary Loan

Search WorldCat or Google Scholar for items worldwide. 

If you cannot access the article or book from our library, consider making an Interlibrary loan request. See the Interlibrary Loan guide below for more information.