Annotated Bibliography
tolikon200
PeerReviewDefined.docxAPUS Library answers the question “What does peer reviewed mean?”
Essentially, peer review is an academic term for quality control. Each article published in a peer-reviewed journal was closely examined by a panel of reviewers who are experts on the article's topic (that is, the author’s professional peers…hence the term peer review). The reviewers look for proper use of research methods, significance of the paper’s contribution to the existing literature, and integration of previous authors’ work on the topic in any discussion (including citations). Papers published in these journals are expert-approved…and the most authoritative sources of information for college-level research papers.
Articles from popular publications, on the other hand (like magazines, newspapers or many sites on the Internet), are published with minimal editing (for spelling and grammar, perhaps; but, typically not for factual accuracy or intellectual integrity). While interesting to read, these articles aren’t sufficient to support research at an academic level.
But, with so many articles out there, how do you know which are peer reviewed?
1. Searching the library’s databases can save you a lot of time…allowing you to limit your search to scholarly or peer reviewed articles only. Most internet search engines (like Google and Yahoo) can’t do this for you, leaving you to determine for yourself which of those thousands of articles are peer reviewed.
1. If you’ve already found an article that you’d like to use in a research paper, but you’re not sure if it’s popular or scholarly, there are ways to tell. The table below lists some of the most obvious clues (but your librarians will be happy to help you figure it out as well).
1. limit your search to scholarly or peer reviewed articles only. Most internet search engines (like Google and Yahoo) can’t do this for you, leaving you to determine for yourself which of those thousands of articles are peer reviewed.
1. If you’ve already found an article that you’d like to use in a research paper, but you’re not sure if it’s popular or scholarly, there are ways to tell. The table below lists some of the most obvious clues (but your librarians will be happy to help you figure it out as well).
