Intro to Peer-Reviewed Sources
When instructors ask you to use PEER-REVIEWED sources (sometimes called "academic articles" or "scholarly articles"), they want you to find and use literature that has been published and accepted by the scholarly community including journal editorial boards and other researchers or reviewers with expertise in the field of study. Check out this 3-minute video for a detailed look at the peer-review process.
Be sure to consult the Search Techniques and Where to Search tabs in this course guide once you're ready to use library databases. And always reach out to your librarian with questions!
Identifying Peer-Reviewed Primary Sources
PRIMARY scientific sources refer to original reports of research - or otherwise studies where there is little or no evidence of having been published before in the literature. Primary articles or reports are typically include the following sections: abstract, introduction, literature review, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, and references (and sometimes an appendix or data sets).
Here are a few clues with examples to help you identify if an article is a PRIMARY source (before reading the full article):
The TITLE includes words like: "compared to," "versus," randomized controlled trial," or "clinical trial". EXAMPLE:
Also, in the ABSTRACT's Methods section words like "trial" or "phase" are used as well as information about population characteristics, dosage amounts, and assessment tools. Also, the ABSTRACT's Results section includes participant data, numbers, or statistical findings (confidence rations or significance values). EXAMPLE:
Identifying Peer-Reviewed Secondary (Review-type) Sources
SECONDARY (or review-type) scientific sources are works that interpret or analyze original PRIMARY research.
Here are a few clues with examples to help you identify if an article is a SECONDARY source (before reading the full article):
The TITLE includes words like: "review," "systematic review," meta-analysis" or "update".
Also, in the ABSTRACT's Methods section words like "review" or "systematic review" are used as well as information about library databases used and the dates of studies and / or published literature were searched. Also, the ABSTRACT's Results section includes numbers and statistical findings (confidence rations or significance values) BUT these are relevant to studies NOT necessarily participant data. EXAMPLE:
Lastly, the REVIEW article REFERENCE section is a great place to find PRIMARY sources that the review article authors are interpreting and analyzing. EXAMPLE:
Types of Secondary (or Review-type) Sources
Review article: A review article provides a synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. They are not reports of original research. Review Articles are excellent resources for discovering what the key articles are for a given topic.
Systematic review: Systematic reviews are methodical reviews and analyzes of literature pertinent to a specific research question. Systematic reviews aim to identify and synthesize all of the primary research related to a question in an unbiased, reproducible way to provide evidence for practice and decision-making.
Meta-analysis: Meta-analysis combine data from unrelated independent studies into a new analysis using a variety of statistical methods and procedures. The aim of a meta-analysis is to combine disparate data sets to draw a conclusion with greater statistical power than that of the individual studies.
Commentary (editorials): Articles expressing a authors view about a particular issue are often published in academic journals as commentary, editorial, opinion or perspective pieces. Some commentary pieces are thoroughly researched, citing peer reviewed literature. While other pieces are basic orations of an individual's perspective and do not reference additional sources. Commentary articles often appear in peer-reviewed journals but are not empirical studies.