Peer Review: What Does it Mean?
The topic of peer review has gotten far more complex as scholars and researchers begin to bypass more traditional approaches to peer review in an effort to provide access to their research more quickly. It is important for you to understand what your instructor might mean when they say they want you to use "peer reviewed" resources. Some things to keep in mind:
Peer-review is done at the article level. This means that a journal may be said to be a "peer reviewed" journal but not all information published in the journal is peer-reviewed.
In a "peer-reviewed journal," it is generally the research articles that are peer reviewed.
The peer review is done by experts in the same field as the author of the research article under review, but the author and the reviewers usually do not know who is doing the reviewing or being reviewed. This protects the process.
The process is intended to protect everyone against poorly done research, but the system is not fool-proof.
The worst case is when a research article has gone through the peer-review process and was published, only to find out later that the research data was manipulated, conclusions were wrong, or an idea was stolen from another researcher. The journal must withdraw the article and publish a retraction notice. This hurts everyone- the researcher's career is damaged, the journal's credibility is hurt, and the reader may become cynical about the whole peer-review system.
