Peer reviewed sources - Definitions - Center for the Study of Race and Democracy Research Fellows Program (LBJ) - LibGuides at University of Texas at Austin

What is a peer reviewed article?

Scholarly conversation

As you work through the article, notice where the author cites arguments or evidence.

When you find points where an author seems to disagree with another source, or when an author seems to be building upon previous sources, go find those.

Here are some ways to do that:

Copy and paste the citation, in whole or in part, into the search bar on www.lib.utexas.edu

Or, do the same on Google Scholar which also allows you to see who has cited the paper you're reading and how they have built their own research upon it:

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Google Scholar uses the popular Google search engine to enable searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. It includes a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Google Scholar includes full text and citations.
Use this link to access Google Scholar, and see our Google Scholar Guide for information on using this resource.
If you encounter a warning about the security certificate when using the FindIt@UT tool in Google Scholar, you can learn more about that using this guide.

Is this article peer-reviewed?

Be aware...

Some databases allow you to limit to peer reviewed, but typically, publications self-report to vendors that they are peer reviewed.
It is the exception rather than the rule that dubious publications will claim peer reviewed status.

Evaluate...

Google the journal title, head to their website and review the submission information. When an author submits an article for publication in this journal, what process will it undergo by those who review it? Look for:
- double blind refereeing (neither the reviewer or author is identified to one another)
- fact-checking
- citation checking
- ethical standards
- Do they name their editorial board? Who are they and what are their affiliations?
Google the author
- What are his or her affiliations? (what university or laboratory do they work at? Who pays for their research?)
- What else has he or she published?
- Where else has he or she published?
- Who has cited his or her work? (you can search this on Google Scholar)

Ulrichsweb: Global Serials Directory This link opens in a new window
Most current file. Unlimited users.
Updated daily. Provides information on virtually every active and ceased periodical, annual, irregular publication, and monographic series published in the United States and throughout the world. Includes contact information for over 80,000 publishers.