Q. How do I find a peer-reviewed or scholarly article?

Peer-reviewed articles (sometimes called scholarly articles) are found in peer-reviewed journals. We have both print and online journals. The online journals are in our databases. Use the links below to learn more about what is meant by "peer-reviewed." 

Distinguishing between scholarly and non-scholarly sources (such as articles, books, etc.) is a valuable skill you can cultivate to evaluate the reputation and validity of a source and as well as distinguish the intended audience. It can be hard to tell sometimes what qualifies as a scholarly source, so be sure to check with your instructor about their definition and standards. 

The word "scholarly" is sometimes used synonymously with "peer reviewed." However all content that is peer reviewed is scholarly, but not all scholarly sources are necessarily peer reviewed. To learn what peer reviewed means, see this FAQ. Many other sources, on the other hand, like most nonfiction books, dissertations, review articles, and etc. are scholarly because of their subject matter and who writes them, but they are only edited. Not peer reviewed.  

To find peer-reviewed articles through the TCC library:

• You can search the Discovery Catalog to find peer-reviewed articles from the library's homepage. Discovery searches a lot of our databases all at once. After doing a search, you can limit to "Peer Reviewed" on the left hand side. Learn more about searching the catalog here.
• Or, from the library's homepage under "Find," click on Articles & Databases.
  • Select an article database such as Academic Search Premier, which allows you to restrict the results to include ONLY peer-reviewed or scholarly articles.
  • To restrict your results to only peer-reviewed or scholarly articles, sometimes databases have a checkbox for "Scholarly (Peer-reviewed) journals" in the filter options, much like the Discovery catalog.
  • Keep in mind that if you have not picked your topic yet, you might want to brainstorm in a reference database first before searching Discovery. 

You will be prompted to log into MyTCC before accessing the library databases, if you are not already signed in.