Guides: POL 325: Congress and the Presidency: Databases

What Does Peer Reviewed Mean?

An article is considered "peer-reviewed" if it has been reviewed by scholars and professionals within the field of study for the article. This process involves reviewing how the article was written and the research involved. The review process involves an extensive exchange between the review panel and the author(s), and the article can only be considered for publication in a scholarly journal once it has been approved.

Ask yourself the following questions about the article you are viewing to determine if it is peer-reviewed:

Does the article contain an abstract?
Does the article contain a full bibliography?
Are the author(s') credentials easily identified?
Does the journal contain little to no advertising?
Is the language of the article intended for an informed
audience?
Is the article lengthy?
Does the journal description include the words "peer-reviewed" or "editorial process"?

Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Many of our databases make the process of locating peer-reviewed information very easy for us by providing a "peer-reviewed" search filter on the search screen. This search filter is automatically selected in our EBSCO databases.

Peer-Reviewed Sources
Use this information sheet for criteria to look for in a peer-reviewed article.

What Databases Should I Use?

BEST BET DATABASES
Start your search with these library databases!

HeinOnline
HeinOnline Academic includes more than 100 million pages of multidisciplinary content in more than 100 subject areas, including history, political science, criminal justice, religious studies, international relations, women’s studies, pre-law, and many more. With more historical content than any other database, HeinOnline provides access to 300+ years of information on political development and the complete history of the creation of government and legal systems around the world.

JSTOR
A collection of core scholarly journals, many going back to the first volume. Emphasis is on back issue coverage. JSTOR also has an extensive collection of primary sources.

OTHER HELPFUL DATABASES

Academic OneFile

Provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources—including thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning.
Statista
Statistics portal integrating statistics and other quantitative data on over 80,000 topics including media, business, finance, politics, and more.

SIFT header

The SIFT Method is a tool for evaluating information in 60 seconds. It focuses on searching other sources to verify the creator's authority and the creator's claims.

Stop what you're reading and watching and ask yourself:
1. Do I know this site or source?
2. What is my goal in watching or reading this information? Do I want to verify the claim they're making?
3. Do I want to share this video?
Investigate the source. Run a quick search on the publisher, author, or creator.
1. Do they have expertise or experience in the subject?
2. Do they have an agenda? (for example, are they trying to sell you something? Is their primary purpose to get you to vote a certain way?)
Find better coverage. If you want to investigate the claim they are making, search the claim and scan multiple sources.
Trace back to the original.
1. If you're unsure if an image has been photoshopped, run a reverse image search.
2. Did the source quote a respected source? Find the original quote to see if it was misquoted or taken out of context.

The SIFT Method by Mike Caulfield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.