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About the Collections

What is Peer Review?

Peer review means that a board of scholarly reviewers in the subject area of the journal review materials they publish for quality of research and adherence to editorial standards of the journal before articles are accepted for publication. If you use materials from peer-reviewed publications they have been vetted by scholars in your field for quality and importance.   

Scholarly, Popular, Trade

Chart created by: SDSU Library & Information Access

CRITERIA

SCHOLARLY JOURNALS

POPULAR MAGAZINES

TRADE PUBLICATIONS

AUTHOR

Expert (scholar, professor, researcher, etc.) in field covered. Author is always named.

Journalist; nonprofessional or layperson. Sometimes author is not named.

Business or industry representative. Sometimes author is not named.

NOTES

Usually includes notes and/or bibliographic references.

Few or no notes or bibliographic references.

Few or no notes or bibliographic references.

CONTENTS

News and research (methodology, theory) from the field.

Current events; general interest.

Business or industry information (trends, products, techniques).

STYLE

Written for experts using technical language.

Journalistic; written for nonprofessional or layperson.

Written for people in the business or industry using technical language.

AUDIENCE

Scholars or researchers in the field.

General public.

People in the business or industry.

REVIEW

Usually reviewed by peer scholars (referees) not employed by the journal.

Reviewed by one or more editors employed by the magazine.

Reviewed by one or more editors employed by the magazine.

APPEARANCE

Plain; mostly print, sometimes with black and white figures, tables, graphs and/or charts.

Glossy, with many pictures in color.

Glossy, with many pictures in color.

ADS

Few or none; if any, usually for books or other professional materials.

Many, often in color.

Some, often in color.

FREQUENCY

Usually monthly or quarterly.

Usually weekly or monthly.

Usually weekly or monthly.

EXAMPLES

Developmental Psychology (published by the American Psychological Association).

Rolling Stone (commercially published).

Monitor on Psychology (published by the American Psychological Association

Finding Peer Reviewed Articles

Many library databases including those owned by EBSCO and ProQuest give you the option to limit your search results to only those results that are peer reviewed. Look for the option to limit your results either on the search page or after the results are returned as a way to refine your search.

If you are still unsure if an article has been you can try the following things.

  • Find the journal’s website.  Look on the website for information about the editorial policy, submission process or requirements for author’s submission.  This section of the website will often give insight into whether or not the journal has a peer review process. 
  • If you still cannot determine if it is peer reviewed, please feel free to call, text, or email the reference librarians and ask them and someone will find out for you and get back to you a.s.a.p.