PSYC 251: PSYC 251

1. Use Library Databases that allow you to limit to Peer Reviewed Journals.
2. Use the Library's Publication Finder to determine if the journal is peer reviewed, if you found the article outside of a database and we have access to it through our databases.
3. Print journals, locate the publication information within the masthead. Does it state it is peer reviewed? What is the process for submitting materials to the publication? Does it go through a peer review process?
4. Does the article format approximate the following - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references? Are the articles written by scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertising non-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yes to all these questions, the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. 
5. Find the official web site on the internet, and check to see if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. 

Want to find other ways to search within PsycINFO? Check out the Quick Reference Guide.

Peer reviewed articles are written by experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in a journal in order to insure the article's quality. In most cases the reviewers do not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the expert.