What is Peer-Review?
The peer-review process helps ensure that the highest-quality research gets published.
When an article is submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, the editor first evaluates whether it meets the journal's basic requirements. If it does, the editor sends the article to other scholars (the author's peers) in the same field for review. These reviewers provide feedback to the editor, who then decides whether to reject the paper, accept the paper as is, or accept the paper with revisions.
Despite its benefits, the peer-review system is not without flaws. For example, Retraction Watch tracks articles that have been retracted due to issues such as plagiarism, errors, or fraud.
How to Determine if an Article is Peer-Reviewed
Peer-reviewed articles often include some or all of these elements:
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Methods / Materials and Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- References / Works Cited
- Supplemental Materials (optional)
However, not all content in a peer-reviewed journal is itself peer-reviewed. Examples of non-peer-reviewed content include:
- Letters to the editor
- Review articles
- Book reviews
- Editorials
- News briefs
To confirm whether a journal is peer-reviewed, ask a librarian or check out the library database Ulrichsweb.
Note
Some articles—such as conference proceedings or technical reports—may be scholarly, but that does not necessarily mean they have been peer-reviewed.
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