What does peer reviewed mean?
A peer reviewed or peer refereed journal or article is one in which a group of widely acknowledged experts in a field reviews the content for scholarly soundness and academic value.
How do I know whether an article has been peer reviewed?
Many databases have a "peer review" option you can select which limits your search results to articles from journals that have a peer review process. This is usually found on the left-hand side of the results page.
Not everything published in a peer reviewed journal goes through the peer review process.
Journals regularly publish editorials, book reviews, commentaries, etc. (usually only a few pages in length which can be a good indication that your "article" hasn't been peer reviewed and isn't the type of article you should use). Consult your instructor or librarian if you're still unsure after checking whether your article has been peer reviewed.
Examples of peer reviewed articles, identifying peer reviewed articles, clues an article is not peer reviewed (Bow Valley College Libguide, September 2022)
How do I know if an article I found has come from a peer reviewed journal?
One tool you can use is Ulrichsweb. Use this to search for the journal title and if the title is there, look for the black and white striped icon that looks like a sports referee's jersey, this indicates the journal is refereed (aka peer reviewed). You can also visit the journal's homepage and look for their About, Editorial, Author, Publication pages for wording that indicates the journal has a peer review process, and which types of articles it applies to.
How do I find peer reviewed papers for my assignment?
1. Choose appropriate databases to search. Below are database options relevant to your class. If you're not sure where to start, try searching in these suggested databases to see what comes up related to your topic. If you need to look elsewhere, consider one of the other biology-related databases.
2. Search the databases using keywords: Your goal is to find relevant articles that relate to your topic and could be a good fit to use in your paper.
Databases:
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ASFA : aquatic sciences and fisheries abstracts
Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) "is a comprehensive database on the science, technology, and management of marine, brackishwater, and freshwater environments and resources."
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Web of science core collection
Web of Science Core Collection provides access to the world's leading citation databases. Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and conference proceedings. Includes current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage to 1900.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access -
Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Database (ProQuest)
The Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Database is an interdisciplinary resource of quality, curated A&I combined with full-text content from scholarly journals, trade journals, conference proceedings, and other sources. The coverage extends Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts (MGA) by providing a sizable element of full-text access along with comprehensive discovery through the extensive abstracts and indexes structured using controlled vocabulary managed by expert editorial teams. For coverage of aquatic science, the collection features the entire range of bibliographic records from Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA).
Content Types: Scholarly Journals, Trade Journals, Books, Conference Papers and Proceedings, Government & Official Publications, Magazines, Newspapers, Other Sources, Reports, Tables, Wire Feeds, Working Papers, Video and Audio. -
Google scholar
Google Scholar searches a subset of the Web that Google has classified as "scholarly literature". They do not publish a list of chosen sites, and they do not state how often sites are checked. Some important sources are not covered at all. Thus, Google Scholar alone should not be relied on for comprehensive research.
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PubMed
PubMed is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM®) database of biomedical citations and abstracts. It includes MEDLINE, which covers over 4,800 journals published in the United States and more than 70 other countries primarily from 1966 to the present.
Open Access -
Scopus (Access expires Dec 31, 2027)
Scopus, a multidisciplinary online resource, will be invaluable to students and faculty in various fields of study within the sciences, health sciences and the social sciences. Scopus offers full-text linking, abstracting-and-indexing information including peer-reviewed titles from international publishers, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, quality web sources.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | Abstracts from 1966 onwards; References from 1996 onwards
3. Review your search results: Scan through the results on the first page or so, reading the title/abstracts to find potentially relevant articles.
How do you know if an article is relevant? Just because an article is in the results doesn't mean it'll provide the information you need. Look at the article title and abstract to get a summary of what the article is about.
4. Redo your search as needed: if you're not finding relevant article try using different search terms or another database; this is completely normal and expected.
5. Read parts of your selected articles: find a few articles that look promising, and skim read the introduction/conclusion of the full-text to decide if they're useful for your assignment. If a PDF or link to the full-text isn't readily available, click on the 
link to see if we have it in our collection.
How to link Google Scholar with UNB Libraries' full-text holdings
