Finding Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed Sources
The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to report original research or experimentation and to communicate this information to the rest of the academic world. Many scholarly journals use a process of peer review prior to publishing an article, whereby other scholars in the author's field or specialty critically assess a draft of the article. Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed journals) are scholarly journals that publish only articles that have passed through this review process. The review process helps ensure that the published articles reflect solid scholarship in their fields.
Not all scholarly journals go through the peer-review process. However one can assume that a peer-reviewed journal is scholarly.
Strengths
- Include extensive bibliographies with footnotes, endnotes or parenthetical citations
- Articles are listed in specialized databases and indexes, such as Academic Search Elite or FACTIVA
- Articles often contain charts and graphs with data
- Authors have done extensive study in the field
Considerations
- Scholarly articles use complex language, specific to a field
- Scholarly articles are long and complex, usually longer than 5 pages
Target Audience
Scholars, specialists in the field, and university students
Finding Scholarly Articles
- Academic Search Elite
- Indexes over 3,400 publications, including scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multicultural studies, as well as popular magazines published from 1990-present. Full-text articles are provided for over 2,000 periodical titles.
- Under "Limit Your Results", check the "Peer-Reviewed/Refereed Journal" box on the main search screen.
- Expanded Academic ASAP
- Indexes over 3,300 publications, including scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities, general science, technology, as well as popular magazines published from 1980-present. Full-text articles are provided for over 2,000 periodical titles.
- Under "Limit the Current Search", check the box for "to peer-reviewed (refereed) articles"
- Google Scholar
- Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles. From academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
- Set Library Links for Cal Poly to access materials the library has subscribed to. See our FAQ for more information about Library Links.
