The fastest way to tell if an article is peer-reviewed is to look up the title in the library OneSearch. If it is peer-reviewed, a purple icon featuring a book and eye will appear just below the title information next to the words PEER REVIEWED.

If the library doesn't have the article you want to check on, you can toggle the Expand My Results filter on the left side of the page under "Refine Your Results." It will show you articles that we don't have full-text access to, but you can still see all of the information, including its peer-reviewed status.

If you don't have a specific article in mind but want to search only for peer-reviewed articles, make sure you use the "Refine Your Results" column on the left and check the box that says "Peer-reviewed" from the Availability section. Select "Apply Filters" at the bottom of the screen to apply it.

As a last resort, if the article does not appear in the library catalog at all, find the name of the journal where the article was published and visit the journal's website. Look for their About page or peer-review policy. For example, if I track down the journal website for the article shown in the screenshot above, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, I see that their peer-review policy section mentions a "rigorous peer review process, beginning with an initial screening by the editor prior to anonymised scrutiny by at least two independent expert referees." So that one is good to go!

Note that most books, videos, websites, newspapers, and popular publications do not undergo the peer-review process. The process often takes several months, so it's generally not used for resources that need to be timely, such as news articles. There are also some articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as opinions or editorial pieces, which might have a peer-reviewed icon due to the journal's peer-review status, but are not peer-reviewed themselves. Generally, if your instructor wants you to use peer-reviewed articles, they want something more scholarly and in-depth that includes a list of references at the end, so you may need to use your best judgment.

For more tips on determining which resources are scholarly, check out our Evaluating Resources guide.