Criminal Justice Resources

Here are some general characteristics that usually apply to peer reviewed journals and their articles:

• Journal is often (though not always) published by a professional association and will have an editorial board
• Articles must go through a review process (reviewed by their peers) before being published. This can be a lengthy process!
• Authors of the articles are scholars, professors, or researchers in that field
• Articles may be substantial and lengthy
• Most articles will have a bibliography or list of references and may include endnotes and footnotes
• An abstract is often included with the article
• Article will be organized into at least 2 of the following sections:
  • Introduction & literature review
  • Theory or background
  • Methods (how I did my research)
  • Results
  • Conclusion and/or discussion
• Tone or language of the article will reflect the subject discipline for which it is written. It assumes some scholarly background on the part of the reader
• Most scholarly articles report on original research or experimentation
• May be accompanied by supporting charts and diagrams, but there may be few pictures
• Journal will have little or no advertisement

Most of our databases have a feature that allows you to limit or refine your search results to only those that are peer-reviewed. Look for that option on the search screen.   Note --- some database providers have a more lenient definition of peer reviewed, if you're not sure check with a librarian or your professor.