Looking for sources? Search EBSCO or QuickSearch.
What is peer review?
Scholarly peer review is also known as refereeing. It is a process that involves the examination of a paper or book by several experts in the writer's discipline, prior to publication. These experts are the writer's peers. For a good visual description of the peer review process, see this page.
Peer-reviewed (refereed) articles are of higher quality than non-peer-reviewed articles, which is a reason your faculty may sometimes require you use some peer reviewed articles in your projects.
How do I find these articles?
Certain databases, such as EBSCO, provide a way to filter results so you only get peer-reviewed articles. Not all databases do, though, so if they don't, you have to use another method, and the easiest way to determine whether a journal is peer reviewed is to use UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory, a database where you can search for a journal title to find whether it is peer-reviewed or not. See the short tutorial below.
UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory is a database that allows you to search for a journal's title and then tells you whether that journal is peer-reviewed or not. Please note that you will need to use your MyPVCC username and password if you are accessing this database off campus.
Step 1
Go to UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory
Step 2
Use the search box to find the journal title you're looking for. Simply enter the name of the journal in the search box and click the Search icon, represented by a magnifying glass.
Step 3
Examine the results.Look on the left of a journal's title. If you see a little icon of a referee's shirt, this means the journal is peer-reviewed.You're done!