Peer Reviewed and Primary Research

The terms "Academic," "Scholarly," "Peer-Reviewed" and "Refereed" are often used interchangeably.  However, although all Peer-Reviewed Journals ARE Scholarly/Academic, NOT ALL academic or scholarly journals are peer-reviewed or refereed!  As discussed in the previous page, "Peer Review" is something quite specific.  A quarterly journal in a particular field may be written for academic use but the editorial process for selecting articles may not include peer review.  So how do you determine whether a journal is peer-reviewed?  One way is to let the database help you select such journals.  Some databases like JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/) or  Project Muse (http://muse.jhu.edu/index.html)  should only contain peer-reviewed journals.  But most general databases include journals (peer-reviewed and not) as well as other non-peer-reviewed materials like magazines, newspapers, conference papers, book chapters and reports.  Here are some tips for limiting to peer reviewed in Academic Search Complete (This works for the EBSCO ERIC database vendor product.)

EbscoHost Databases

You can simply check off the "Limit" box below the search box(es)--even before you do your search--and eliminate all magazine articles, newspaper stories...ANYTHING that is not defined by Ebsco as a Peer-Reviewed Journal:

Or, you may "Refine" your search after you produce an initial results list, by limiting the search from the left frame:

Additional Ways to Determine if a Journal is Peer-Reviewed

•  The webpage for a journal may state this fact.  For example, the homepage for the journal Evolutionary Psychology includes a statement in the first paragraph that it is "an open-access peer-reviewed journal that aims to foster communication between experimental and theoretical work on the one hand and historical, conceptual and interdisciplinary writings across the whole range of the biological and human sciences on the other."
• You may consult a resource like Ulrichsweb (http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/) (the online equivalent of the Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory).  This wide-ranging directory puts a small referee jersey icon     next to any journal deemed "refereed" (aka "peer-reviewed").  Although we have a subscription to Ulrichsweb, we have only a single, simultaneous user.  So, please remember to click the "Log Out" button in the upper right when you finish checking your journals.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  When an instructor says that you must use Peer-Reviewed Literature, they often MEAN that the articles must be "Research Articles" or "Primary Articles."  If this is the case, then extra care must be taken in judging the articles you retrieve.  A peer-reviewed or refereed journal usually contains content besides original research articles.  This additional content may include letters, editorials, commentary, book reviews and more.  Generally, your professor does NOT WANT YOU TO USE THIS CONTENT.  They want you to use primary sources.  Look at the next tabbed page for more on this.