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University Library

Communications and Media Studies

What is peer-reviewed research?

Your instructor made have told you that you need to find peer-reviewed articles for your assignment. But what does that mean? Peer review is the process that researchers and academic publishers use to verify that the information being published is valid and reliable. When researchers write up the results of their research in the form of an article, that article will then be read and reviewed by other researchers in the field. Reviewers look at the research methods, the data, the theories being used or presented, and the researcher's conclusions to determine whether the research is high quality. Articles aren't published unless other scholars have verified that it's worth being published. 

Most peer-reviewed articles are published in academic journals and are not freely available on the web. You need to go through the library's website to get free access to this content. You can find research articles in OneSearch and also in abstracting and indexing databases that are specific to your subject area. 

Using OneSearch

You can find a lot of peer-reviewed articles in OneSearch. You can limit your search to articles right away, or you can limit your search once you're in OneSearch by using the Resource Type filter on the left-hand side. 

The Peer Review filter in OneSearch will limit your search to scholarly journals. However, these journals also publish content like book reviewed and opinion columns that aren't peer-reviewed, so always verify that the article you're looking at is a research article. If you're not sure how to do that, get in touch with your librarian to find out how. 

Books can also be great sources for learning about the research being done on a topic! Even though books are not peer reviewed, they are thoroughly reviewed and vetted by publishers. Often, you may find that one chapter in a book is very relevant for your research and you don't have to read the entire book, so don't discount searching for books to find current research. 

Search OneSearch

Use this form to search OneSearch. You can choose whether to search keywords, or look for a specific title, author, or subject term. You can also narrow down to the type of item you're looking for.

Using Databases

Research databases are a great source for finding articles, and since they are usually subject-specific, it can be easier to find relevant research than using OneSearch. Try searching in multiple databases to make sure you're finding as much relevant information as you can.