English 102

Peer Review Review

What does “peer-reviewed” mean?

Scholarly journals require that all articles being considered for publication be reviewed by one or more of the author’s peers (specialists working in the same field). If the reviewers indicate that the article is accurate, up-to-date, well-reasoned and otherwise acceptable, the journal will probably publish it. If they recommend rejection, it will probably not be published.

A third option is called “revise and resubmit,” which means that the reviewers think the article has promise but that it needs additional work before it is ready for publication. They suggest changes the author should make, after which she or he can resubmit the article for reconsideration.

How do you tell if your source is peer-reviewed?

The easiest way is by using EBSCOhost to find your source and clicking on the title of the periodical or journal in which it appears. This will take you to the “Publication Details” page for that journal, which has an entry indicating whether it is peer-reviewed (it’s near the bottom, so you may have to scroll down to find it). ProQuest does not seem to have a similar field. So if you’ve found your source in ProQuest, go over to EBSCOhost, click on the green “Publications” button (just after “Keywords”), then enter the title of your periodical in the “Browse Publications” box—not in the “Find” box at the top of the screen, but in the next box down, under the “Publications” tab.

Both EBSCOhost and ProQuest allow you to search only in scholarly and/or peer-reviewed journals. However, they are not always accurate! Some periodicals that are not scholarly do slip through the cracks, so don’t rely on the databases alone to determine whether the source is a scholarly one. There is no substitute for the checklist to determine whether you have a scholarly source.

(See the next question as well.)

If your source appears in a peer-reviewed journal does that automatically mean it’s a scholarly source?

Not necessarily. For one thing, not all peer-reviewed journals are scholarly journals. For example, the Columbia Journalism Review is a trade magazine for journalists. It is peer-reviewed, but it is not a scholarly journal.

For another thing, just because it appears in a scholarly journal, that does not mean that the article itself can be considered a scholarly source. It hasn’t necessarily even been peer-reviewed. Editorials and book reviews, for example, are frequently published in scholarly journals but, unlike full-length articles, they are not peer-reviewed. They are also typically not in-depth enough to be considered “scholarly” in the strict sense of the word. Therefore, simply because you found something in a peer-reviewed journal doesn’t mean it’s a scholarly source. Again, there is no substitute for the checklist.