How to find peer-reviewed articles in AU databases For further assistance: IM chat Ask a LibrarianAsk a Librarian Or call the Info Desk at

In EBSCO databases …

Some databases in EBSCO do not have any scholarly material in them (Newspaper Source) and some have only scholarly material in them (PsycARTICLES). If you are searching databases like those, you will not see the “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals” limiter on the search screen. If you are searching multiple databases in EBSCO, as long as any one of those databases has scholarly and nonscholarly material in it, the limiter will appear.

In the JSTOR database … All the material in JSTOR is scholarly, so there is no need to limit your results.

In ProQuest databases …

Scholarly Journals, including peer-reviewed Check this box to search only scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed journals. Leave the box empty to include other sources in your search. A publication is considered to be scholarly if it is authored by academics for a target audience that is mainly academic, the printed format isn't usually a glossy magazine, and it is published by a recognized society with academic goals and missions. A publication is considered to be peer reviewed if its articles go through an official editorial process that involves review and approval by the author's peers (people who are experts in the same subject area.) Most (but not all) scholarly publications are peer reviewed. Some trade publications are actually peer reviewed, but ProQuest does not consider them when filtering on peer reviewed. This is because getting results from trade publications instead of academic journals can be frustrating to researchers. Instead, ProQuest excludes these peer reviewed trade publications and only considers publications that are scholarly in terms of content, intent, and audience.

In the LexisNexis database … LexisNexis Academic is an outstanding service for researching news, business, and legal topics, but it should not be your only source when you are doing research in science or medicine, or when you need to find peer- reviewed journal articles other than from law reviews. Some of these types of materials are included in LexisNexis Academic, but they are not the main strengths of the service.

In SILC Statewide Illinois Library Catalog databases … This database does not currently allow users to limit results to scholarly, or peer-reviewed, sources.