There are a couple places that you can find peer reviewed journal articles on the library’s website but the two primary options are by using the Multi-Search (the main search box on the library’s homepage) or a database that includes peer reviewed journal articles on the A-Z Database List.

One of the best places to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is to go to the journal website. Most publishers have a website for a journal that tells you about the journal, how authors can submit an article, and what the process is for getting published.

Elements which affect the quality of journals

• Reputation – of the journal and the publisher.
• Scope and focus of the journal.
• Turnaround time / publication lag.
• Included in prominent indexes.
• Longevity.
• Editorial standards / Journal information.
• Acceptance rate.
• Cost.

Only credible, scholarly material is included in Google Scholar, according to the inclusion criteria: “content such as news or magazine articles, book reviews, and editorials is not appropriate for Google Scholar.” Technical reports, conference presentations, and journal articles are included, as are links to Google …

Examples of peer reviewed journals include: American Nurse Today, Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, Journal of Higher Education, and many more. This makes them different than their peer reviewed counterparts.

The Top 21 Free Online Journal and Research Databases

• CORE. CORE is a multidisciplinary aggregator of open access research.
• ScienceOpen.
• Directory of Open Access Journals.
• Education Resources Information Center.
• arXiv e-Print Archive.
• Social Science Research Network.
• Public Library of Science.
• OpenDOAR.

Here are a few major databases for finding peer-reviewed research sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences:

• MLA International Bibliography. This link opens in a new window.
• Web of Science (Core Collection)
• Academic Search Ultimate.
• IEEE Xplore.
• Scopus.
• Business Source Ultimate.

Using a command line search, you can locate peer previewed articles. To search for peer reviewed journals only, attach and RV Y to the end of your search. RV is the tag for peer reviewed and Y is the variable indicating “Yes.”

15 Scholarly search engines every student should bookmark

1. Google Scholar. Google Scholar was created as a tool to congregate scholarly literature on the web.
2. Google Books.
3. Microsoft Academic.
4. WorldWideScience.
5. Science.gov.
6. Wolfram Alpha.
7. Refseek.
8. Educational Resources Information Center.