Scholarly journal articles are one of the primary means of communicating research ideas. They are an important component of academic research and give you some insight into ongoing debates and scholarly conversations about your topic. You can find articles through database searches.

Peer-reviewed or refereed materials are publications reviewed by “expert readers” or referees prior to the publication of the material. After reading and evaluating the material, the referee informs the publisher if the document should be published or if any changes should be made prior to publication. Refereed materials are also referred to as peer-reviewed. Refereed materials are significant to the research and the literature of most academic fields because they assure readers that the information conveyed is reliable and timely.

Many article databases now allow you to limit your search to display only peer-reviewed (refereed) results. Use this option to eliminate guesswork and rest assured that your results are all from peer-reviewed sources.

Note: beware the “scholarly” label…as we’ve seen, a source can be “scholarly” but not necessarily peer-reviewed. Look for “peer-reviewed” or “refereed” to be sure.

Scholarly journal articles are one of the primary means of communicating research ideas. They are an important component of academic research and give you some insight into ongoing debates and scholarly conversations about your topic. You can find articles through database searches.

Finding articles is a two-step process:

• First, search for the topic you are interested in by using one of the article databases listed below. If you get stuck, ask your instructor or a librarian for help getting started.
• Next, find the actual text of the articles you want by clicking on the full-text link or Discover button in a database. Many of our journals are online, but some of them are still available only in print. If the journal article you are looking for is not available electronically, you can use the Library Catalog to look up the location of the journal for which you have a citation.

OR

• If you know the citation of the articles you want, from bibliographies or suggested readings lists, you can use  Journal and Article Locator to determine if we have full-text online or in print.