The content on this page was borrowed with permission from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Library.
When you look at a scholarly article, it has certain pieces that should be present. As noted above, look for the Journal information, the Title, the Authors, the Abstract. Also, as the article continues, keep your eyes out for an Introduction, a Methods section, a Results section, a Discussion, and References (at the end).
Look for these structure elements when you're evaluating an article to confirm that it's peer reviewed:
Usually rather lengthy, including technical terms and methodologies.
In addition to their names, you may also see authors' credentials - where they work/teach, their degrees, contact information etc. This information is included to help establish their authority.
A brief summary of the article - often divided into the same sections as the article text. Readers use abstracts to quickly determine if the article will help meet their information needs.
The actual text of the article is usually divided into sections with headings: introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. There are frequently also charts and other visual representations of data.
You'll find in-text or footnotes throughout an academic article, and a length list of corresponding citations at the end of a scholarly article. These references are connect a scholarly article to the larger field of research and demonstrate the evidence and other research that the work is based on. References are also a great place to look for additional sources on your topic.
You're looking for two combined pieces:
an article that meets the criteria of a scholarly article
AND
a journal that contains peer-reviewed articles.*
* Or any other criteria as assigned by your professor or that meet your information need.
These may be great sources and very useful to you (remember to cite them if you use them!), but they're not peer- reviewed.
Research Tools
Services for...
Spaces & Places
About the Library
Jessie Ball duPont Library, University of the South
178 Georgia Avenue, Sewanee, TN 37383
931.598.1664
Facebook