How to Identify a Peer-Reviewed Article

Peer-Reviewed articles are the base of your research as a study consultant. You need to use them as sources to support your arguments, and many universities demand you to only use articles reviewed by professionals in the field, to make sure that the information you're using is accurate and up-to-date. To properly identify peer-reviewed (also known as refereed) articles, you'd first have to understand a couple of terms:

• What is Peer-Reviewed?

An article or written piece that has been reviewed by a group of experts in the field, sometimes called a board of editors.

• What is a Journal?

A scholarly journal (also referred to as academic journals, scientific journals, or peer-reviewed journals) is a periodical that contains articles written by experts in a particular field of study.

Now that you know this, let's learn how to identify them. There are several characteristics to spot a peer-reviewed article:

Appearance

Scholarly journals lack the advertising, colorful graphics, and photographs found in popular magazines. The articles are often lengthy, will begin with an abstract, and may include graphs, tables, or charts. Articles will include the name of the author or authors and a list of references.

Authority

The most highly-regarded scholarly journals are usually those sponsored by professional associations; for example, the American Psychological Association and the American Chemical Society.

References

The authors of scholarly articles always list the sources of their information. These references are usually listed at the end of an article, but they may appear in the form of footnotes, endnotes or bibliography.

Author's Credentials

Articles in scholarly journals are written by experts or researchers in a particular field of study. Look for advanced degrees or credentials attached to an author's name (i.e. M.S., Ph.D, M.D., etc) as well as their affiliations with particular institutions. 

DOI Number

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier), is a unique string of numbers and letters used to permanently identify an article and link it on the web. DOIs are primarily assigned to academic journal articles and research reports. Many scholarly articles will have DOIs attached to them. 

Note: Only with the DOI, you can create citations to include in your reference list. Just use MyBib (citation generator), copying and pasting the DOI number and it will automatically create the reference for your journal article.