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Understanding peer-review: Recognize & find peer-reviewed articles

A quick guide about the peer-review process and how to find peer-reviewed sources.
  • Confirm the journal uses peer-review
    • do a Google search for the journal title, in quotations marks (e.g.: "Journal of Applied Psychology"). Peer-reviewed journals include information about their review process in the "about" or "article submission" sections.

    • peer-reviewed journals may also display impact factor information (this is an index based on the number of times articles published in that journal have been cited by other authors. Journals with a high index have a stronger reputation in the field).
  • Look at the article structure
    • abstract, introduction, methods, discussion, results, conclusion, and references are normally seen in empirical peer-reviewed articles.

    • review articles may include sections with different names, but overview of the research problem, conclusions, and reference list will be present.
  • Check the journal section in which an article was published
    • several journals organize different types of articles in different sections (e.g. Editorial, research articles, review articles, commentaries, etc.). If the article is labeled as "research" or "review", you are facing a peer-reviewed article.

    • not all articles in peer-reviewed journals are peer-reviewed. Editorials, commentaries, or brief description articles are usually not peer-reviewed.
  • Check date details: peer-reviewed articles often include a "date of submission", "date of revision", and "acceptance date" on the first page. This indicates the article has gone through peer-review process.

IMPORTANT: labels and filters used in Discovery and on databases are not always accurate when distinguishing peer-reviewed articles from non peer-reviewed ones. Use the assessment tips to ensure that your result is in fact a peer-reviewed source.

Find more search strategies here: https://yukonu.libguides.com/research_process/explore

 

Using the Discovery Search (main search box on the library home page).

  1. Type in your keywords and submit your search.
  2. Check the description beneath the journal title (articles published in peer-reviewed publications will appear as "peer-reviewed"), or use the "Content Type" filter located in the left column to refine to peer-reviewed articles only.

YukonU-library-search-result

 

Using library databases

Check the Databases A-Z page and check databases per area of study and per type of content. Several of our databases contain peer-reviewed articles. 

Most databases include a filter to refine to peer-reviewed articles only. The filter can be seen either from the main search interface or from the results list.

Ebscohost databases Proquest databases

 

Though peer-review is still the main option to guarantee the quality of published research, it is not entirely flawless. Even respected authors and highly regarded journals sometimes have to issue corrections or the retraction of entire papers, either because data was inaccurate, incomplete, or there were unknown ethical concerns at the time of publication.

The issue of retraction becomes more problematic as researchers are pressed to publish more (publication volume is usually assessed for grants and career advancement) and with topics that require research results to be published faster (think of Covid-19).

Retraction Watch is an important tool to find papers that have been retracted. Check also Retraction Watch's Blog for news about retractions.