Evaluate What You Find

Peer review is a quality control process for research.  It means that experts in a field of study evaluate research before it gets published. You can think of it as academic fact-checking by fellow scholars who know the subject inside and out.

You may be required to use peer-reviewed sources for your assignments.  They tend to carry more weight for your assignments than other types of sources.  

You can search specifically for peer-reviewed sources in Library Search or in our online databases.  Many are clearly marked as "peer-reviewed," "scholarly," "academic," or "refereed," depending on where you find them.  All of those terms mean the same thing.

A common peer review process might look like this:

1. Submission: A researcher submits their work to a journal
2. Initial Review: The editor decides if the work fits the journal's scope
3. Peer Evaluation: 2-3 anonymous experts review the research
4. Feedback: Reviewers provide detailed comments and recommendations
5. Decision: The editor decides to accept, reject, or request revisions
6. Publication: Approved research is published for the academic community

Tutorials

• Understanding peer review (self-paced tutorial)
• Limiting to peer reviewed sources in Library Search (online guide)