Libraries subscribe to various types of periodicals, such as scholarly (some of which may be peer-reviewed, blind peer-reviewed, editorial review) popular, or trade publications. Choosing which to use depends on your topic, the type of writing you are doing, your assignment, and the sources your professor wants you to use. Many databases offer the option to limit to "Peer Reviewed". If you're not sure if a journal is considered peer-reviewed, check Ulrich's by looking up the title of the journal.
What is a peer-reviewed journal?
A scholarly/academic journal is peer-reviewed when manuscripts are sent to experts, sometimes anonymously (blind peer-reviewed), in the related field. They make recommendations to editor for publication, rejection or revision. These journals are generally thought to be of the highest quality.
Search by keywords/phrases and use Boolean searching.
Using "Quotation Marks" searches words as a phrase.
Limit search results by Date and Peer-Reviewed journals.
Truncation searches variations of a word. The symbol used is asterisk *.
COUNSEL* will retrieve: counseling, counsel, counselors, counselor, counselled, etc.
Check Subject terms to see if there are any synonym terms to consider.
If you come across a citation to an article and you'd like to track down its full text, follow the steps below:
The example below shows that The Journal of Continuing Higher Education is accessible in print/microform as well as online. The entry also shows coverage dates to indicate which years are accessible.