How to Evaluate Information Sources

Peer reviewed means that professionals in the field evaluated the source before it was published. Unlike popular sources (such as books, magazine, newspapers, etc.) which are written for a general audience, peer reviewed sources are written by professionals, for professionals.

For example, a peer reviewed source on a topic related to mechanical engineering is meant to be read by other people in the field of mechanical engineering, like professors, students, and other mechanical engineers.

Peer reviewed journals are well respected in the academic community. These are peer reviewed (sometimes called "refereed") to ensure the quality of the research articles in the publications. Most of these journals are published by reputable publishers or university presses. Rigorous criteria must be met before a peer reviewed source is published, so a peer reviewed source is generally better quality than a popular source.

Text Version

Peer-Review Process

1. Author writes and submits article manuscript to journal
2. Journal Editor sends manuscript to expert reviewers to evaluate quality of research, write-up, and conclusions
3. Expert reviewers return manuscript to editor with suggestions for changes, if any, or recommendations to publish or not to publish
4. Editor reviews suggestions and returns manuscript to author for revision
5. Author revises manuscript and resubmits
6. Journal Editor includes in Journal issue

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.

Academic/Scholarly Journal Articles:

• are written by experts (professors and researchers).
• are intended to be read by other professors, researchers and students.
• use specialized or technical vocabulary for the field.
• include a lengthy list of references (citations).
• are longer and focus more in-depth on research.

Popular Magazine Articles:

• are written by journalists.
• are intended to be read by the general public.
• use language understood by most readers.
• rarely include formal citations for their sources.
• are shorter and general in focus.