Optometry Subject Guide: Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Strategies for Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Peer–reviewed, or refereed, articles have been reviewed by experts in the field to ensure their validity and reliability before being accepted for publication. A couple of things to consider:

• Not everything in a peer-reviewed journal is peer-reviewed. For instance, news, editorials, letters to the editor are not peer-reviewed.
• Some open-access journals are peer-reviewed but they should be carefully reviewed. Look for those from reputable publishers.

Now, need to find peer-reviewed articles? There are several ways to do so:

1. Search in a database that is limited to peer reviewed articles. Some such databases are Clinical Key, OVID, and Science Direct. Other databases may have a filter to limit search results to academic journals but be cautioned that this limit may exclude articles from some peer-reviewed journals.

2. Check the Peer-Reviewed Journal lists for each of the MBKU programs which can be found on the library website on the Journals page of each program's Subject Guide. These lists only include journals for which we have subscriptions. There are many more journals not included in the lists that you could use and for which we can get articles for you from another library.

3. If there is a journal you're interested in that is not on you program's Peer-Reviewed Journal list, check the journal website for more information.

• Be sure you're on the publisher's website. Do a Google search for the journal title and find it on the publisher's site, or If you're in a database, look for a link to the publisher's site there.

• Once on the publisher’s site, Look for information on whether the journal is peer-reviewed in one or more of the following places:
  • About us
  • Editorial policies
  • Author guidelines / Author information
  • Submission guidelines
  • Guidelines for reviewers (this alone would mean the journal is peer-reviewed)

If you find no evidence that the journal is peer-reviewed and want more clarification, contact the library staff at library@ketchum.edu.

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