ENGL 101/102

You can evaluate any source using the 5 W's:

• Who: ...wrote it? Are they an expert?
• What: ...is the purpose of this resource?
• Where: ...was this information published? ...does the information come from?
• When: ...was this published or last updated?
• Why: ...is this resource useful? ...is this resource better than other ones?

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.

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. 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 "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.

Consult these sources to learn more about peer review:

• 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.