You will hear the phrase "peer reviewed" over and over again in your assignments. But what does it mean? A peer reviewed article is an article that has gone through the peer reviewed process. This process is where experts in a field review and evaluate a manuscript prior to its publication. It is a strong indicator of a credible source and quality scholarship. The peer review process takes years to navigate and, therefore, there will always be a long delay between an event and scholarly publication. Additionally, be careful of imposter articles. Not everything inside a peer reviewed journal is peer reviewed. Some journals also include editorials and letters, which are not peer-reviewed. The format of these sources (reviews and letters) usually makes them easy to distinguish from peer reviewed articles in the journal. However, if you are unsure, check with a librarian.
Peer-Reviewed articles are often considered the "gold standard" of academic sources and your professor will often ask you to cite them. While these sources are important and useful, these materials are authored almost solely by academics. Review the information above on how authority is constructed and contextual. If you only rely on peer-reviewed sources, whose voices are being left out of the conversation and your research?
A researcher performs a study or researches a topic and writes a paper.
Image Credit: "The Peer Review Process" from UC Berkeley's Understanding Science.
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After you hit the search button and get to the search results page. Take a moment to review the number of results you retrieved. While you might have the perfect number of results, it is far more common to have either too few or too many results. This is normal and expected. Remember, research is a process. You will almost always need to return to previous steps in the process and attempt new search strategies. The interactive image below goes over how to use these limiters to refine your searches and other helpful tools on this page.