BIOL 120: Intro to Biological Inquiry: What is Peer-Review?

Peer-reviewed research has gone through a refereeing process (like a sports referee).  Through the peer-review process, a scholarly work is checked by a group of experts in the same field to make sure it meets the professional standards before it is published.  It is largely used with scholarly research journals (academic journals) to help ensure that published articles represent the best scholarship that is currently available. 

Publications that do not use peer-review, such as Time, Discover, Newsweek, and U.S. News, rely on the judgment of the editors as to whether an article is quality material or not. Articles are not as rigorously reviewed because these publications do not rely on solid, scientific scholarship.

How do I know if a journal is peer-reviewed?

1. The easiest way of determine whether a journal is peer reviewed is by using the library's catalog. Search the library's catalog for the title of the journal, and the results will indicate whether it is peer reviewed. If there is no indication, then it is not peer reviewed.
   
2. Most article databases, including the library catalog, have an option to limit results to peer review. If there isn't a limiter option, try adding "peer review" as a search term. Many databases like Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) will also indicate whether an article is peer reviewed. 
   
    
3. ​​​Visit the journal or publisher's website. Publishers will highlight whether a journal is peer reviewed in the description of the journal.  

• NOTE: Even thought a journal is deemed peer reviewed does not mean every article in the journal is peer-reviewed.  Book reviews, editorials, etc., do not qualify as peer-reviewed. 

Peer-Review in Three Minutes
This three minute video describes and discusses the importance of peer-review and its process.

(NCSU video, 3:15 minutes)