Biology 260 (Bio 260)
Is it Peer Reviewed?
Peer review is a process scholarly articles go through before they are published. Scholarly articles are sent to other experts in the field (peers) to ensure that they contain high-quality, original research important to the field. This is a measure of quality control other types of literature don't go through.
If you can't tell whether or not a journal is peer-reviewed, check Ulrichsweb.
- access the database
- type in the title of the journal
- peer-reviewed journals will have a referee jersey ("refereed" is another term for "peer-reviewed") - example below
Primary v. Secondary
Both primary and secondary sources can be useful to you in your research, but you need to be able to distinguish which is which. Both types of information sources can be found using library databases, and both may even be peer-reviewed sources. So how do you tell which is which? Refer to the table below for some quick ways to determine if the source you've found is a primary source or a secondary source.
Primary Sources
- Describe original research, or original analysis of someone else's data
- Articles and papers by the researcher(s) presenting data and research findings
- Describe methodology and findings
- Terminology: Often scientific terminology and jargon; authors assume familiarity with the subject
Secondary Sources
- Discuss research done by others
- News, magazine articles, books, and review articles explaining, analyzing, or commenting on research
- Published AFTER primary sources (“second”)
- Terminology: May use less jargon and/or assume less familiarity with subject
Differences between Popular, Scholarly, & Trade Publications
An important part of gathering and evaluating sources for research projects is knowing the difference between popular, scholarly, and trade publications.
- Popular magazine articles are typically written by journalists to entertain or inform a general audience,
- Scholarly articles are written by researchers or experts in a particular field. They use specialized vocabulary, have extensive citations, and are often peer-reviewed.
- Trade publications may be written by experts in a certain industry, but they are not considered scholarly, as they share general news, trends, and opinions, rather than advanced research, and are not peer-reviewed.
The physical appearance of print sources can help you identify the type of source as well. Popular magazines and trade publications are usually glossy with many photos. Scholarly journals are usually smaller and thicker with plain covers and images, In electronic sources you can check for bibliographies and author credentials or affiliations as potential indicators of scholarly sources.
| Popular Magazines | Scholarly (including peer-reviewed) | Trade Publications | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content |
Current events; general interest articles |
Research results/reports; reviews of research (review articles); book reviews |
Articles about a certain business or industry |
| Purpose | To inform, entertain, or elicit an emotional response | To share research or scholarship with the academic community | To inform about business or industry news, trends, or products |
| Author | Staff writers, journalists, freelancers | Scholars/researchers | Staff writers, business/industry professionals |
| Audience | General public | Scholars, researchers, students | Business/industry professionals |
| Review | Staff editor | Editorial board made up of other scholars and researchers. Some articles are peer-reviewed* | Staff editor |
| Citations | May have no citations, or may be informal (ex. according to... or links) | Bibliographies, references, endnotes, footnotes | Few, may or may not have any |
| Frequency | Weekly/monthly | Quarterly or semi-annually | Weekly/monthly |
| Ads* | Numerous ads for a variety of products | Minimal, usually only for scholarly products like books | Ads are for products geared toward specific industry |
Scholarly Articles (Databases)
- ScienceDirect Health Science Collections This link opens in a new window
- MEDLINE This link opens in a new window MEDLINE® provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree numbers, tree hierarchy and explosion capabilities to search abstracts from over 4,800 current biomedical journals. Included are citations from Index Medicus, International Nursing Index, Index to Dental Literature, HISTLINE, SPACELINE, PREMEDLINE®, AIDSLINE®, BIOETHICSLINE®, and HealthSTAR®. Premier Package customers will have instant access to full text for 1,750 journals indexed in MEDLINE (at no additional charge). Users of MEDLINE will be excited to learn that this is now a "full text database".
- PubMed This link opens in a new window The world's largest biomedical database, freely available on the Internet.
- CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window "CINAHL Complete is the world’s most comprehensive source of full-text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 1,300 journals indexed in CINAHL. ... CINAHL Complete is the definitive research tool for all areas of nursing & allied health literature and supports nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers."
