- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Research Guides
- SOIL SCI 250: Introduction to Environmental Science (Fall 2020)
- Reading & Evaluating Articles
SOIL SCI 250: Introduction to Environmental Science (Fall 2020) : Reading & Evaluating Articles
Tips and Tutorials
This page of your course guide links to online guides and tutorials to assist you in becoming a critical consumer of information. Importantly, too, these selected resources speak to your task as a student, to process and to determine the usefulness of scholarly information (articles and more) to inform papers and projects.
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Evaluating Sources Tip Sheet (PDF)Printable handout of general criteria to apply to information you find.
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Identifying Scholarly ArticlesList of descriptive characteristics for identifying scholarly articles, plus video clip.
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Reading Scholarly ArticlesInteractive tutorial with tips (from students and researchers) on how to identify parts of a scholarly article with an eye to reading comprehension, as well as determining quality, reliability.
What is a Peer-Reviewed Article?
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Peer Review in Three Minutes (video)How do articles get peer reviewed (or refereed)? What role does peer review play in scholarly research and publication? Video from NCSU Libraries.
Tips & Strategies
Filtering search results by peer reviewed sources:
- The library's "Articles" search as well as many of the databases-by-subject include this as a filter for your retrieval. Look for link or box to select.
Determining whether a journal engages in peer review:
- Run Web search for journal or journal publisher's site; review "about" information or its instructions to authors.
- Use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory; run a search for journal source and review descriptive information. Sources that engage in peer review will also have an icon that looks like a referee's jersey.
- Ask a Librarian (we are happy to assist you)!