I Need to Find an Article that Peer Reviewed, Scholarly, Academic, or Refereed?

Answer

A "refereed" or "peer-reviewed" article is a scholarly work that was reviewed by the scholar's peers, meaning other scholars in the field. This is an important part of the research process since it allows other scholars to provide input on the accuracy and methods of the research. Only scholars or experts in a field write a refereed article. It is generally published in academic journals.

A general magazine article, on the other hand, is often written by someone who is not a specialist in the field. A good example of this would be Newsweek or Time articles -- they are written by journalists who have done research on the topic they are writing on, but they are not scholars in that topic. They are writing for general readership rather than on a level that only other scholars could understand.

Many of the library's databases give you the option to limit your search to peer-reviewed journal articles by checking a box on the search page. See the library database description to see if it includes journals.

Caution: Be aware of things like book reviews or editorials that appear in peer-reviewed journals, but aren't necessarily peer-reviewed themselves. For questions about this, Contact Us or send a question to our Ask a Librarian service.