What Is a Peer-Reviewed Journal

“Peer-Reviewed” Journals

and the Format of “Scholarly” Articles

What is a peer-reviewed journal?

One in which each feature article has been examined by people with credentials in the article’s field of study before it is published

Collections of papers from conferences may be considered as peer reviewed…if the original presentations were “invited” or examined by experts before being accepted

Double-blind peer review means that neither the author nor the reviewers know each others’ identities.

When searching the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) database, it is possible to limit the search results to: peer reviewed journals, blind peer reviewed journals, double blind peer reviewed journals and/or expert peer reviewed journals

If you can’t tell from the front of a journal, go to the online Serials Directory to check to see if your article is from a peer-reviewed journal.
On the AHSL Web page [ click on the Databases tab, then click on ‘S’, and from the resulting list of titles scroll down and click on Serials Directory
On the Gateway page, click on Serials Directory; then, on the resulting page, type in the journal name and click the Search button
On the resulting display, scroll down screen until you see the journal title and click on the blue live link.
Scroll down the resulting screen to Peer-Reviewed Journal. It will say either Yes or No)

The online Ulrich’s International Periodicals database (see instructions above for access) also indicates peer-review status.
On the AHSL Web page [http// click on the Databases tab, then click on ‘U’, and from the resulting list of titles click on Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory.
On the Gateway page, click on the Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory link or the “Go” button. Then on the resulting page, (1) type in the journal name in the first “terms” box and the word ‘refereed’ in second “terms” box just below and (2) click the search button.
You can verify the journal’s peer review status by clicking on the “Complete Record” link and scrolling down to view the “Special Features” field. “Refereed” indicates that the journal is peer reviewed.

To retrieve a list of peer-reviewed/refereed journals in a particular subject or specialty in the online Ulrich’s International Periodicals database, once you have connected, (1) Type in the specialty area (e.g., Nursing) in the first “terms” box, click the down arrow next to the Terms anywhere box underneath, and choose from the menu Descriptors(DE). (2) Type in the word refereed in the second “terms” box, click the down arrow next to the Terms anywhere box underneath, and choose from the menu Special Features(SF). (3) Type in the word English in the third “terms” box , click the down arrow next to the Terms anywhere box underneath, and choose Language Notes (LN) if you’re interested in English language journals; this works only partially, since the Language Notes field identifies both the language of the journal and that of the abstract, and they could be different. (4) Click the yellow Search button.

The typical format of a scholarly article

Introduction and Statement of the problem - explains the need for the work and research question or hypothesis to be supported or refuted by the study

Data Collection - describes the data-gathering procedure and any potential omissions

Analysis – examines the data by qualitative/quantitative means, states whether the research question/hypothesis was proven/refuted

Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Research – discusses the results, suggests explanations, what might have been overlooked, recommendations for additional research on the topic

Selected content adapted from: Christopher Brown-Syed, What is a Peer Reviewed Journal?, Internet document ( 2000-2003.

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626-3510

08/2006 626-7724