You can evaluate journal articles for scholarly content by considering the following:
- Authorship
- Who wrote the article?
- Does the author have a Ph.D. or credentials related to the topic they are writing about?
- Does the author work for a college, university, or government research agency?
- Has the author published books on a similar topic?
- Publication
- What is the name of the journal that contains the article
- Who publishes the journal: an academic institution, government agency, or academic publisher?
- How often is the journal published?
- Which topics does the journal cover?
- Who is the intended audience?
- Article
- Does the article contain an abstract or summary?
- Are charts, graphs, or other supplementary materials included in the article
- Does the article provide references, both in-text and at the end of the document?
- Does the article use terms and concepts that are unfamiliar to you?
Many databases also have a feature that allows you to limit your search results to scholarly/peer-reviewed/academic sources. You can see an example below how to limit results in the NOVA Libraries Catalog.
Step by Step: Searching for Peer-Reviewed Articles in the Catalog from NOVA Libraries on Vimeo.
If you need to determine if a journal is peer-reviewed, and it's not clear from the journal's homepage, you can use the UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory database to verify.
NOTE: Not everything published in a peer-reviewed journal is a peer-reviewed article. Peer-reviewed journals often include letters to the editor, commentaries, and/or book reviews that are not considered peer-reviewed articles.