What are Peer Reviewed Articles?

Peer reviewed, or scholarly, articles are written by experts and are read and reviewed by other scholars in the field.  Their comments and suggestions are incorporated into the article before it is published in a scholarly journal. This process is known as peer review and helps check the accuracy and validity of the research as well as the article’s overall quality.

These articles are the main way scholars communicate with each other about their research findings.  They are like a conversation between scholars on a particular topic.  Sometimes scholars agree, and sometimes they don’t!  And just like a conversation, it is all about finding the pertinent information and moving the conversation forward.

How do articles get peer reviewed? What role does peer review play in scholarly research and publication?

Why use Peer Reviewed Articles?

Peer reviewed articles are considered the gold standard source type for academic research.  They are written by researchers, or experts, on the topic, so it takes some of the guess work out of wondering if you should use them or not.

In peer reviewed articles, you will find:

• findings from original research
• detailed information about a narrow aspect of your topic
• expert language
• charts or graphs
• a list of references, or sources, the author used