Peer Review Basics: Home

Peer review refers to the process of evaluating a manuscript/article submitted for publishing in an academic journal. The manuscript is reviewed by impartial reviewers with expertise in the same field or discipline as the author. Hence the phrase Peer Review. Reviewers access the manuscript for accuracy and validity of research methodology before publication.

Why do I need to know this?  At some point in your academic career you will have an assignment that requires you, the researcher, to use peer reviewed articles. It is easy to find an article using a college or university database or Google Scholar, but not all articles found are peer reviewed. If you understand the concept of peer review, your academic career becomes much easier especially when it comes to research. 

How can I tell if the article is peer reviewed? Good question!

• Using Google Scholar: When using Google Scholar for research, select the title of the article you find relevant. Once the article is on the journal home page, look for the 'About Us' option. A brief description about the journal will include information stating if it is a peer-reviewed journal. 
• Using GALILEO:  GALILEO made it easy for students to find peer-reviewed articles by provided tab button under the 'Limit to' section. Simply select the peer-reviewed option and begin your research.

GALILEO can be accessed through the SCTC Library webpage. Type in your keywords or topic in the search box and press select. After you press select, the results page appears listing articles titles pertaining to your topic. The Filter options appear at the top of the page, under the search bar. Select- Peer Reviewed

Peer Review in 3 Minutes is by North Carolina State University

This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license.

Published April 2014

Peer reviewed article features vary according to discipline and type of study that was conducted. Here is list of common features included on peer reviewed articles published in academic journals.

1. Title of Article and Name of the Academic Journal

2. Authors and Author Credentials 

3. Abstract - Abstract functions as summary of the article

4. Organization by heading such as Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Procedures, Results, Conclusion

5. Citations throughout article & Bibliography or Reference list at the end of article