Peer Reviewed Journal
Peer-reviewed publications, also known as refereed or scholarly articles, are authored by researchers, physicians, or scientists and then meticulously scrutinized by other professionals in the same area. The peer reviewers examine the methodology, data analysis techniques, and research quality. If an article doesn’t adhere to academic standards, they may recommend improvements or reject it. Because of the thorough verification procedure, it may take a while before the article is published.
Non-Peer Reviewed Journal
A non-peer reviewed source is, generally speaking, anything that is NOT a peer reviewed journal article. Non-peer reviewed sources include things like documents produced by a government agency, books or book chapters, newspaper or magazine articles, blog posts, websites, and documentaries.
One other non-peer reviewed source is an article from a trade journal. Trade journals, also called trade publications, trade magazines, or professional magazines, or newspapers, whose target audience is people who work in a particular profession or industry. Articles in these publications are often short, and the publications may contain advertisements.
There are several types of articles found in peer-reviewed journals:
- Original research articles: Report the results of research studies and the science behind the results.
- Case studies: Report on unique cases that can contribute to the existing knowledge in the field.
- Literature reviews or review articles: Provide an overview of multiple articles in a certain field.
- Correction or retraction articles: Update the findings of a study or refute previously published findings.
- Commentary articles and editorials: Provide opinions and personal viewpoints (bias) from experts in the field, often about controversial and current topics.
- Media and book reviews: Provide reviews of recent books, websites or reports (These are not typically considered “articles” to use in an academic paper).
Why peer reviewed journals?
Peer-reviewed publications adhere to strict guidelines and research standards. Articles that go through the peer-review process are held to the highest standards in each field of research and are considered highly credible. Authors are also required to provide clear explanations of how they conducted the research, reference all of their sources of information, and declare any potential limitations of their experiments.
Many peer-reviewed articles are also used as building blocks for further research in important fields of science and medicine.
Some of the reasons for publish in peer reviewed journal
- The act of putting your research to paper will help you clarify your goals for the research, will help you in reviewing and interpreting your own data and force you to compare your work with that of others.
- Peer review gives you important feedback on the validity of your research approach, and can provide insight into the next steps for advancing and interpreting your work.
- Communicating the information you have found will help other researchers advance their work, thus building on the body of knowledge that exists in your field.
- Writing and publishing put your research into a larger context.
- Your published paper can help in the public understanding of a research question.
- Having a robust body of published works helps advance your career as you are considered for academic appointments and promotions.
- Publishing helps establish you as an expert in your field of knowledge.
- The peer-reviewed publication provides evidence that helps in the evaluation of the merit of research funding requests.
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