Guide to Articles: Peer Reviewed, Reference, Popular Issues, & Primary Resources

Step 1.

Visit the Library Homepage: https://library.fiu.edu/

Step 2.

Add search terms to "Search for Anything..."

Step 3.

On the left, under "Availability", choose "Peer-reviewed Journals"

What is peer-reviewed?

Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are used to maintain quality standards, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication. Peer review can be categorized by the type of activity and by the field or profession in which the activity occurs, e.g., medical peer review.

-Definition from Wikipedia

Why should I know about peer-reviewed articles?

Learning to identify scholarly (often known as "peer-reviewed") and non-scholarly sources of information is an important skill to cultivate.  Many databases provide help with making this distinction; they will offer options when searching to identify peer-reviewed content. Ulrich's Directory of Publications is a database that can be searched to verify the publication type (scholarly, refereed, magazine, etc).

How do articles get peer-reviewed?

Peer-reviewed journals only publish articles that have been approved by a panel of experts/researchers/professionals in a field of study. Some research professors/assignments will require that you only use peer-reviewed sources.

Do you need to verify that a journal is peer-reviewed?

Additionally, Ulrich's Directory of Publications is a database that can be searched to verify the publication type (scholarly, refereed, magazine, etc).

Follow these steps:

1. Start at the Library's homepage: library.fiu.edu
2. Under "Find" on our homepage, click "A-Z List".
3. Go to “U” in the A-Z list and select “Ulrich’s Web” from the list.
4. Once you are in that resource you can do a search for your journal title and it will indicate whether your journal is peer-reviewed or not.