One of the most basic questions we need to ask when looking at an information source in nursing is, "Is this article from a PEER-REVIEWED journal?" On this page, you will learn what peer-review is, how to identify a peer-reviewed article, and how to limit your results to peer-reviewed articles.
Watch this brief video to learn what peer review is all about.
Libnscu. (2014, May 1). Peer review in 3 minutes [Video]. YouTube.
Googling a journal title (such as the Journal of Advanced Nursing) and looking at the journal's "About" page will tell you if a journal is peer-reviewed. However, NOT every article in a peer-reviewed journal will be a research article. There are commentaries, opinion pieces, and other non-research articles included in these journals.
Watch the video below to learn how to identify a research article in a peer-reviewed journal.
Concordia University Library. (2019, May 21). How do I know if articles are scholarly or peer-reviewed? [Video]. YouTube.
Scholarly research articles (found in peer-reviewed journals) share a common structure and characteristics. What the video below and then click on "Anatomy of a Scholarly Article" to learn what the elements of a scholarly article are.
Dinscore, A. (2013, August 16). The anatomy of a scholarly article [Video]. YouTube.
Limiting your results to PEER-REVIEWED articles is key when searching library databases. Here is how to do this in each of the library databases:
CINAHL: Check off "peer-reviewed" checkbox under "limit your results"
ProQuest: Check off "peer-reviewed" checkbox under the search box
Gale Academic OneFile: Check off the "peer-reviewed" checkbox below the search box
PubMed: Only peer-reviewed journals are indexed in this database, so you don't need this limiter
Nursing Reference Center: NOTE: This is NOT a peer-reviewed journal database
Google Scholar: NOTE: There is no way to limit to peer-reviewed journals--use with caution!