Q. How can you tell if an article is peer-reviewed?

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PEER-REVIEWED

Authors’ names are given, and occasionally some biographical information, but rarely credentials (degrees, professional status, expertise).  You may be left wondering if the author is really an expert on the topic he or she is writing about.

Authors’ names, credentials and even addresses are almost always included (so that interested researchers can correspond).  Authors will be experts in their fields.

Articles are written for a broad audience, using everyday language (any technical terms will be explained). People of all ages and/or levels of knowledge could read these.  Usually written in a more casual tone.

Papers are written for experts (or college students!) in the field (lots of technical or discipline-specific terminology, which is seldom defined). Always written in a formal tone.

Articles may have short summaries of research or news…or may even reflect the authors’ opinion (without support from data or literature).

Papers typically report, in great detail, the authors’ research findings (and include support from other research)…these papers will be more than just 1 or 2 pages.

Authors don’t typically (or never) cite their sources, and don’t include a list of references at the end of the article.

Authors always cite their sources throughout the paper, and include list of references (a bibliography or works cited page) at the end.

Articles typically include many photographs or illustrations (often pretty to look at).

Papers seldom include photographs, but may include tables or graphs of data (may seem bland at a glance).

The journal has an editor, but no strict guidelines for submission of articles, or peer review process.

The journal has very specific guidelines for papers to be published (often this information can be found on the journal’s website), and a rigorous peer-review process (each paper will list when it was submitted to the reviewers, and when it was accepted for publication…often several months apart!).