ENGL 101/102

Finding Research Articles About Your Topic

What kind of research has been done on your topic? Where can you find original research articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals? 

Use this page to learn about sources for finding peer-reviewed original research articles.

Also, learn about  the nature and characteristics of peer-reviewed and original research articles.

<p>Also explore the <a href="https://researchguides.njit.edu/az.php">Library&#39;s AZ Database list </a>to find scholarly resources dedicated to specific subjects (Psychology, Education, Transportation, etc.)</p>

Also explore the Library's A-Z Database list to find scholarly resources dedicated to specific subjects (Psychology, Education, Transportation, etc.)

Understanding what Peer Review is All About

What is a peer-reviewed article anyways? What is the big deal about peer review? What is it? How does it work? Why do my instructors ask me to find peer-reviewed articles to use in my paper?

If an article has been "Peer reviewed" it has earned a kind of authority and credibility from an academic/scientific community. It's a process that research has to go through before it is published. When we're talking about peer review, we're usually talking about scholarly and academic publications. They are usually original research -- research that's never been done before. 

Consult these sources to learn more about it:

• Learn about peer review -- and its imperfections -- by watching All About Peer Review, a video from the CSUDH Library.
• Consult the Research Guide on Peer Review from NJIT Library to learn more.
• Watch Peer Review in 5 minutes from NCSU Library to learn more about the process of peer review and how to identify peer reviewed research.
• Read the information sheet What's the Difference? from Purdue University.
• Look over the peer-review process infographic on the LibGuide from UC San Diego.
• Want to learn more? Read Peer Review in Scientific Publications: Benefits, Critiques & A Survival Guide for an extensive and in-depth treatment of peer review including its history and problems.

What do peer reviewed articles look like?

Probably the most known peer-reviewed journal is Nature. Take a look at the current issue of Nature -- notice that it has all kinds of articles of interest to a lot of people -- news, editorials, book reviews. Take a look at the "Research Articles" section. There you will see the peer reviewed articles from Nature such as:

• Physiological measurements in social acceptance of self driving technologies

• Modeling innovation in the cryptocurrency ecosystem

• Human preferences toward algorithmic bias in a word association task

Notice that the articles have a "received" or "submitted", "accepted by" and "published" dates. These are the marking of peer reviewed articles -- finding these dates can be a quick and easy way of identifying peer-reviewed research. These articles also describe an original scientific study or experiment. They follow the scientific method and have sections with names like "Introduction", "Methodology", "Results", etc. Peer-reviewed articles often, but don't always, have multiple authors whose affiliations are given in the article.