For some research projects you will need to use peer-reviewed journals. But how do you know what is peer-reviewed and what is not? There are generally three types of information resources:
Newspapers and magazines: articles are written by reporters and generally quote experts in a field.
Journals with articles written by academics and/or professionals: Although the articles are written by experts, it may not be reviewed by a group of peers, and therefore may not be fully accurate or true.
Peer-reviewed or scholarly journals: these contain articles written by experts and are reviewed by other experts in the field before it is published. This ensures the quality of material being published. They will review the methods, conclusions, and quality of writing to ensure it meets the highest standard.
Here's some tips to help figure it out.
What is peer-reviewed:
More cues to tell the difference:
From a citation:
Journal title: does it have bulletin, journal or review in the title?
Frequency of publication: Is it less frequent (monthly, quarterly, annually)?
Author of articles: Are there multiple authors?
Article length: Is it longer?
Article titles: Is it telling you information in the title, or trying to sell you something?
From the periodical/journal:
Quality of materials: Is the paper thick or thin, shiny or flat? Are there more pictures than words? Are there graphs and charts?
Advertising: If there is advertising, it's not a journal
Tone: Is it conversational, or academic? Is is selling you something or sharing something? Does it use terms specific to the field of study?
Audience: Is it targeting a specific audience, or the more general population? Do you need to know about the topic beforehand?
Purpose: What is the purpose of the article? Are they selling something or sharing new information or discoveries?
Availability: Can you find it on the shelf in stores? It's probably not peer-reviewed.
From an article:
Abstract: All peer-reviewed articles have an abstract
References: All peer-reivewed articles have references
Author's credentials: There is generally a description of the author's background in the subject being written about.
Academic journals can be complicated to read. They might include technical language and are intended for experts in the field. However, that does not mean that students cannot use them to find helpful information.
When considering a journal article for your research, first review the keywords attached to it and the title. A well-written article should have an informative title, and the keywords will identify the subject. If these do not seem relevant to your topic, stop here and look for another article.
Next, read the abstract. This is a brief summary of the article. Again, if it is not relevant to your topic, stop here and move on to another paper.
If you have found an article that matches your subject, focus on the Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion sections. These will give you the background of the research, tell you what the researchers found out, and possibly how these findings might be applied. Don't worry if you don’t understand all of the terminology in the paper, especially the first time you read it.
Finally, it often helps to make your own short summary of the article. You can do this by writing a sentence or two for each section of the paper describing the main idea. This can assist you to understand the important points of the article.