JUS 301 - Hopkins

Peer review is a process that some scholarly journal publishers use to ensure the articles they publish represent the best scholarship currently available. Peer reviewed journals are sometimes called refereed journals. When an article is submitted to a peer reviewed journal, the editors send it out to other scholars in the same field to get their opinion on the quality of the scholarship and its relevance and importance to the field. This means that when an article is finally published in a peer reviewed publication, there is a consensus among experts that the information disseminated in that article is of the highest quality.

An article in a peer reviewed journal is always considered a credible source of information.

An easy way to tell the difference between journal and popular magazine articles:

This interactive tutorial (hosted by NCSU Library System) illustrates the components of a journal article.