STEP 1: Limit database results by checking the following before searching:

• Full Text
• Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

STEP 2: Keep in mind the following:

1) Peer-reviewed articles cite their sources.

2) Peer-reviewed articles are going to be long.  (There is no set length for how long a peer-reviewed article has to be, but scholarly articles are usually more than five pages long.)

3) The article has clearly marked sections, i.e. Introduction, Methods, etc.

A common complaint leveled at the databases is: 'I put in my search terms,checked the box for full-text and peer-reviewed articles, hit search, then selected my articles from the list and my instructor is saying it is not peer-reviewed.' This is because not all of those articles in the results are peer-reviewed. When you check the peer-reviewed limiter, you are asking the database to retrieve articles found in peer-reviewed journals. The catch is that peer-reviewed journals often (usually) contain news stories, opinion articles, book reviews, etc.  In other words, not all the articles in a peer-reviewed journal are peer-reviewed.  

See the Finding Peer Reviewed Information page under My eLibrary and please contact the library for help with your research.