Week 5 - Assignment: Understanding Peer-Reviewed, Primary, and Secondary Sources

6/2/22, 8:19 AM Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Journals - Research Process - LibGuides at Northcentral University

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NCU Library / LibGuides / Library How-To Guides / Research Process / Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Journals

Research Process These pages offer an introduction to the research process

at a very general level.

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Finding a Research Topic

Determining Information Needs

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Scholarly and Peer- Reviewed Journals

Grey Literature

Clinical Trials

Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Journals

Scholarly journals are journals which are well respected for the

information and research they provide on a particular subject. They are

written by experts in a particular field or discipline and their purpose is

to advance the ongoing body of work within their discipline. These

articles might present original research data and findings, or take a

position on a key question within the field. They can be difficult to read,

because their intended audience is other experts and academics, but

they are the capstone when it comes to authoritative information.

Scholarly journals are oftentimes peer reviewed or refereed. A peer- reviewed or refereed article has gone through a process where other

scholars in the author’s field or discipline critically assess a draft of the

article. The actual evaluations are similar to editing notes, where the

author receives detailed and constructive feedback from the peer

experts. However, these reviews are not made available publicly. For

an example peer review of a fictitious article, see the Sample Peer- Review of a Fictitious Manuscript link below.

Please keep in mind that not all scholarly journals go through the peer-

review process. However, it is safe to assume that a peer-reviewed

journal is also scholarly. In short, “scholarly” means the article was

written by an expert for an audience of other experts, researchers or

students. “Peer-reviewed” takes it one step further and means the

article was reviewed and critiqued by the author’s peers who are

experts in the same subject area. The vast majority of scholarly articles

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6/2/22, 8:19 AM Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Journals - Research Process - LibGuides at Northcentral University

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Evidence Based Treatment

Statistics

Datasets

Scholarly Research

Preparing to Search

Reading a Scientific Article

Evaluating Information

Finding Similar Resources

Resources for a Literature Review

Resources for Dissertation Research

Organizing Research & Citations 

Scholarly Publication

Learn the Library 

are peer reviewed.

However, because there are many different types of peer-review, be

sure to evaluate the resource itself to determine if it is suitable for your

research needs. For example, law reviews may indicate that they are

peer-reviewed, but their "peers" are other students. Please see the

Law Reviews FAQ below for more explanation.

If you need help determining whether a scholarly journal is peer

reviewed or refereed we recommend using the Ulrichsweb database. Ulrichsweb is the authoritative source of bibliographic and publisher

information on more than 300,000 periodicals of all types, including

academic and scholarly journals. Find out more about how to use and

access Ulrichsweb through NCU Library by watching the Ulrichsweb Quick Tutorial Video (link below).

For additional instruction on scholarly vs. peer reviewed journals,

please see the Library's Scholarly vs. Peer-Reviewed Journals Quick Tutorial Video (link below).

For information about how to limit your database searches to

scholarly/peer-journals, see the following FAQ:

How do I find scholarly, peer reviewed journal articles?

Sample Peer-Review of a Fictitious Manuscript

Law Reviews FAQ

Ulrichsweb Quick Tutorial Video

Scholarly vs. Peer-Reviewed Journals Quick Tutorial Video

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Ask Us!

Library FAQs

How do I find scholarly, peer reviewed journal articles?

What is the difference between scholarly and peer reviewed journals?

How do I determine if a particular journal is peer reviewed?

What are empirical articles? How do I locate them in NCU Library?

Are dissertations and theses considered scholarly or peer-reviewed resources?

Are books

Peer Review Process

For scholarly information on the peer review process, see the following

resources:

Chenail, R. (2008). Peer review. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 605-606). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412963909.n313

Constantine, N. (2008). Peer review process. In S. Boslaugh (Ed.), Encyclopedia of epidemiology (Vol. 2, pp. 795-796). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412953948.n343

Mark, M. & Chua, P. (2005). Peer review. In S. Mathison (Ed.), Encyclopedia of evaluation (pp. 299-299). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412950558.n404

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Tags: annotated bibliography, Boolean operators, cited, cited references, citing articles, dissertation research, field codes, Google Scholar, literature review, measurements, organizing citations, peer-reviewed journals, popular sources, primary sources, research

design, research methods, research topic, research_process, scholarly sources, searching, secondary sources, statistics, tests,

theoretical frameworks, theory

Are books peer reviewed? If so, how can I tell or how can I find them?

Are law reviews considered to be scholarly and peer- reviewed?

Are government sources considered to be scholarly?

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