You've seen how to find peer-reviewed articles in the Setting Limits tab.
Here we will add just a few words about why peer reviewed articles are valuable. Peer reviewed articles have gone through a process before publication to check the writing and the research to see if it is complete, clearly written, and complies with the publication standards of a specific journal. If a submitted article meets all the standards, it will be published. If not, it may be sent back to the author for additional work, or the journal might decline because the article may be considered out of their scope.
At St. Thomas, you may hear/see faculty use these terms in assignments. They all are ways to identify peer reviewed articles.
To confuse things, databases may use the term 'scholarly articles' instead. Many of these are probably peer reviewed, but perhaps not all.
How to verify that a journal is peer reviewed:
If you need to verify whether a journal uses a peer review process, you have two options.
1) use Ulrich's Periodical Directory. You can find Ulrich's under the U's in the database A-Z list. Here is an example of a search for a title in Ulrich's.
Look for the box in front of the title (highlighted here) that resembles a referee's shirt. That is your proof that this journal uses a peer review process.
2) Use Cabell's International (under the C in the A-Z list). This is another directory of scholarly publications. Here is an example of a search in Cabell's. Begin by searching for the title you are interested in (you can shorten the title, or search a keyword). Here is an example.
Here is the top of the entry for this journal. Click on "journal details".
Look in the "Journal Overview" section for the 'review type'.
