What does it mean for an article to be peer-reviewed?
When a researcher submits an article to a scholarly journal, a journal editor does a first pass to see if the article appears well-researched and credible. Then they usually remove the name of the author and send it out to a few other experts in the field to see what they think of the article. These informed readers provide feedback on the article, and the journal editor decides based on that feedback whether to publish the article, or ask for revisions from the author, or deny it outright. This process is called peer-review. Peer-review is not foolproof: sometimes readers miss mistakes or be biased. However, it is an important way to ensure that the resource you are accessing has been refereed by an expert in the field.
How can I tell if a resource has been peer-reviewed?
- One shortcut is to check the peer-reviewed box in whatever database you're using. But often the databases make mistakes.
- You can double-check by looking up the journal in a database called Ulrich's.
- You can also double-check by visiting the journal's website and to learn what they say about peer review in their guidelines for authors. (Here's an example.)
But which one to source to use can sometimes be tricky. Because if you're researching an up and coming playwright, there might not be enough written by that playwright to make it into scholarly journals. You might be relying on research written in popular websites for information. You can still use the scholarly sources to help supplement your research, but don't let it stop you from shining a light on an playwright whose work speaks to you
