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LIBRARY

Located in the Student Achievement Center on the Youngwood Campus
Learn about the differences between eBooks, reference sources, academic journals, magazines & periodicals, trade publications, and reports.

Scholarly Publications

The Peer Review Process

  • A study is submitted to a journal, then reviewed by a managing editor and sent to a panel of experts
  • Experts check its originality, significance, methodology and accuracy
  • They either accept, accept with minor revisions, accept with major revisions, or reject
  • If not rejected, the author makes adjustments until the experts are satisfied

Forms of Peer Review

  • Open: Authors and reviewers are aware of each other's identities
  • Closed or Blind: Authors are not aware of who is reviewing their work. Reviewers ARE aware of the author's identity
  • Double-Blind: Neither the author nor the reviewers are aware of each other's identity, resulting in less bias

Choose the "Peer Reviewed" filter under the searchbox to limit your search to only peer reviewed articles.

Here is an example from the results list:

Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journals vs. Popular

  POPULAR
(sometimes called Periodical)		 SCHOLARLY
(sometimes called Academic Journal)
TYPE Magazine, Newspaper Journal
AUTHOR Journalist, Reporter, Writer Scholar, Expert, Researcher, Scientist
AUDIENCE General Public, Everyone Scholar, Expert, Researcher, Scientist, College Student, Graduate Student
ARTICLE LENGTH Short: 1-5 pages Long: 10 pages or more
FREQUENCY Daily, Weekly, Monthly Per Year: Annual (1), Semi-Annual (2), Quarterly (4), Monthly (10-12)
APPROVAL PROCESS: Who approves a manuscript before it is actually published? Editor or a few Editors Peers or Referees; other Scholars, Experts, Researchers, Scientists who serve as readers to review manuscripts before they are accepted for publication;  journals doing this are called Peer-Reviewed or Refereed journals
READING LEVEL Common Language, Everyday Language; 6th to 8th Grade Reading Level Higher level reading; Detail oriented, with language which is sophisticated, specialized, technical
SUPPORTING MATERIALS Pictures, Illustrations Footnotes, endnotes, bibliography or works cited list, additional readings, charts, graphs, tables
ACCESSIBILITY Easy to access at Deli, Grocery Store,  Supermarket Purchase at bookstore, e.g. Barnes & Noble; Academic or Research Library, sometimes Public Library
EXAMPLES People, Time Journal of the American Dental Association

 

Westmoreland County Community College Library - Student Achievement Center, 145 Pavilion Lane, Youngwood, PA 15697
Phone: 724-925-4100 | Library Hours | D2L | FAQs