What is Peer Review? Video Script

Video by: Deakin Library

What is peer review?

Have you heard the term peer review and wondered what this means?

Peer review is a quality control process where an author's scholarly work or research is scrutinized by experts in the same field. The process is designed to ensure that published works are valid, original, and of high quality. Because of this, peer reviewed articles convey a level of trust and value to the audience.

So, how does the peer review process work? It can vary, but the process generally looks like this. An author begins by submitting a paper for publication in a peer reviewed journal. The journal's editor assembles a panel of experts from the relevant field and invites them to evaluate and comment on the paper. Each of these reviewers carefully reads the paper and prepares their review comments. The reviews are then returned to the editor, each with a recommendation to accept, reject, or make changes to the paper and resubmit.

On the basis of all the reviews, the editor then decides whether or not to publish the paper as an article in the journal. Finally, the author is advised of the outcome and, if successful, the paper is published in the journal.

At uni, you may be asked to use peer reviewed articles in your assessments.

So, how do we identify a peer reviewed article? First, note that peer reviewed articles are sometimes called refereed articles or even scholarly or academic articles. So you should remember these alternate terms.

Start by limiting your database search to peer reviewed. Do this by clicking the relevant checkbox on the search or results screen. However, not all databases will have this feature.

You can also check if the journal is described as a peer reviewed journal. To do this, look up the journal's official website or find a current copy of the journal and check its publication information.

Another way to identify a peer reviewed article is to look for these features which are usually found in peer reviewed articles:

Scholarly and technical language
Abstract or summary
Methodology
Results
Key recommendations or conclusion
References
Author's academic affiliations
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So, does the peer review process guarantee that the published information is correct? Unfortunately not. It is an important part of the scholarly process, but peer reviewers cannot possibly check every aspect of the original work or redo the research. So incorrect or flawed information can be overlooked. However, the peer review process helps to strengthen the credibility of information so that the research can be taken seriously.