Social Policy

When instructed to find "peer-reviewed" articles here are some factors to consider when determining  if an article is credible and maintains a level of authority appropriate for your assignment or project. In other words, is it scholarly or not.

• Who wrote the article and what credentials do they or their organization hold? 
• Who published the article and are they well known?
  • Open Access publishers will be transparent about their publication process, just because it's openly available does not mean the article or publisher is unreliable. 
• When was the article published?
  • Currency and relevancy matter more in different disciplines. 
• Who is the intended audience?
• What references are cited? 

You've determined that your article(s) are indeed scholarly. So, what next? You need to read them to determine whether the content is appropriate for your project/assignment and identify any information which may be helpful to include in a paper or presentation.

• Read the abstract carefully as this provides an overview of the content and what the article is about.
• Start by skimming the article:
  • reading the first few lines of each section will give you an idea of content in relation to your assignment, project, or topic.
  • The parts you pay closer attention to may depend on your assignment, project outcome, or topic. 
• While reading highlight important information (physically or digitally).
• Take notes on important information:
  • Make sure the notes are in your own words. This will help you synthesize your thoughts later. 
• You may need to make inferences, information is not always directly stated.

Questions to help keep you focused when reading:

1. What problem does the research address?
2. What did the author(s) learn?
3. How does the study, result, or outcome relate to your topic?

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