ENGL 1301 - Dwyer - Fall 2025: Articles + Databases

How to Identify Peer-Reviewed/Scholarly Articles

Look for the following features to identify if it is peer-reviewed:

• Publisher: Peer-reviewed journals are typically published by professional organizations or associations (like the American Chemical Society). They also may be affiliated with colleges/universities.
• Graphics: Typically there either won't be any images at all, or the few charts/graphs are only there to supplement the text information. They are usually in black and white.
• Authors: The authors are listed at the beginning of the article, usually with information on their affiliated institutions, or contact information like email addresses.
• Abstracts: At the beginning of the article the authors provide an extensive abstract detailing their research and any conclusions they were able to draw.
• Terminology: Since the articles are written by scholars for scholars, they use uncommon terminology specific to their field and typically do not define the words used.
• Citations: At the end of each article is a list of citations/reference. These are provided for scholars to either double check their work, or to help scholars who are researching in the same general area.
• Advertisements: Peer-reviewed journals rarely have advertisements. If they do the ads are for professional organizations or conferences, not for national products.

ACC Libraries have more than 90 resources to help you find articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers. The ones listed are the most useful for Computer Information Systems / Computer Science.

(See a complete list of ACC Library Resources by Subject or by Title)