In today's digital age, information is everywhere. But how can we determine what's reliable and trustworthy? One crucial factor is whether a source has undergone peer review. In this blog post, we'll explore what peer review is, how it differs from popular publications, and why it's important for academic research.
Peer review is a process where experts in a specific field evaluate the quality, validity, and originality of research articles before they are published. These reviewers, often referred to as "peers," assess the author's methodology, findings, and overall contribution to the existing body of knowledge.
While both peer-reviewed articles and popular publications aim to inform and educate, there are significant differences in their approach and content.
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
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Undergo a thorough evaluation by experts.
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Written for a specialized audience.
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Provide evidence and support for claims.
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Adhere to strict publication standards.
Popular Publications:
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May not undergo the same level of scrutiny.
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Written for a broader audience.
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May not provide extensive references.
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Have more flexible publishing standards.
To identify peer-reviewed sources, look for journals that explicitly state their peer review process or have a mission statement outlining their commitment to peer review. Additionally, some journals may provide information about their review board. Finally, use reputable academic databases which often include peer-reviewed articles.
To filter for peer-reviewed articles in the Library Search, check the Scholarly Peer-Reviewed box under the Refine Results>Limit to tab on your search results page. See screenshot:
For more information about Peer-Review, explore the library’s Peer-Review Guide.
Did you know that the South College Library provides students, faculty, and staff access to over 100,000 eBooks? Find eBooks related to your academic studies, personal interests, and self-improvement. Do you enjoy reading fiction books? The library’s collection includes novels, collections of short stories, and poetry too.
Taste as Experience by Nicola Perullo
Taste as Experience puts the pleasure of food at the center of human experience. It shows how the sense of taste informs our preferences for and relationship to nature, pushes us toward ethical practices of consumption, and impresses upon us the importance of aesthetics. Eating is often dismissed as a necessary aspect of survival, and our personal enjoyment of food is considered a quirk. Nicola Perullo sees food as the only portion of the world we take in on a daily basis, constituting our first and most significant encounter with the earth. Perullo has long observed people's food practices and has listened to their food experiences. He draws on years of research to explain the complex meanings behind our food choices and the thinking that accompanies our gustatory actions.
Art and Expressive Therapies Within the Medical Model: Clinical Applications by Deborah Elkis-Abuhoff & Morgan Gaydos
Art and Expressive Therapies Within the Medical Model explores how to best collaborate across disciplines as art and expressive therapists continue to become increasingly prevalent within the medical community. This collection of diverse chapters from seasoned practitioners in the field introduces readers to art therapy interventions across a variety of artistic approaches, patient demographics, and medical contexts, while paying special attention to new approaches and innovative techniques. This is a cutting-edge resource that illustrates the current work of practitioners on a national and global level while providing a better understating of the integration of biopsychosocial approaches within art and expressive therapies practice.
Families’ Values by R. Urbatsch
One of the central questions in politics is from where people derive their tastes and opinions. Why do some people embrace the free market, while others prefer an interventionist state? From where do preferences for a vigorous foreign policy or for sterner policing of moral issues come? As has been shown, political preferences may be influenced by perceived benefits, the media, or public intellectuals, but less is known about the influence of family on political attitudes. Some mechanisms of family influence are well-known: people tend to share their parents’ political philosophies, while those with young children have heightened concern for child-related policies such as education. But family dynamics are likely to have far richer and more varied effects on political attitudes than those traditionally considered. Families’ Values considers the ways that the everyday behaviors of family members systematically and unconsciously influence political preferences. For example, does having a mother who works outside the home lead children, when grown-up, to have more liberal ideologies? Or might having a son who could potentially be drafted into the armed forces influence a parent to become a pacifist? Drawing on surveys from the United States and the United Kingdom, R. Urbatsch looks at the ways in which parents, siblings, birth order, gender, and socioeconomics influence opinions on issues from war to the welfare state, to abortion. Through compelling analysis, he demonstrates that our family relationships play an enormously crucial and multi-faceted role in the way that we experience, learn about, and practice politics.
Leadership for Learning by Carl Glickman & Rebecca West Burns
Leadership for Learning equips school leaders (preK-12) to unlock teacher potential and drive student success. This revised edition draws on the authors' experience to provide a comprehensive guide for fostering teacher growth. Leaders will learn to tailor professional development for each teacher's needs, ensuring it directly improves student learning. The book delves into effective observation, assessment, and evaluation techniques, empowering leaders to provide valuable feedback. Building strong relationships with teachers is a core focus, emphasizing the importance of understanding individual needs and fostering well-being. Glickman and Burns highlight the art of stretching teachers' skills by using the right interpersonal approach. Furthermore, the book equips leaders to seize "teachable moments" with immediate feedback. Packed with detailed scenarios, case studies, and practical strategies, Leadership for Learning offers a roadmap for school leaders to cultivate a thriving community of educators, ultimately creating exceptional learning environments for all students.
Radio Empire by Daniel Ryan Morse
Initially created to counteract broadcasts from Nazi Germany, the BBC's Eastern Service became a cauldron of global modernism and an unlikely nexus of artistic exchange. Directed at an educated Indian audience, its programming provided remarkable moments: Listeners in India heard James Joyce reading from Finnegans Wake on the eve of independence, as well as the literary criticism of E. M. Forster and the works of Indian writers living in London. In Radio Empire, Daniel Ryan Morse demonstrates the significance of the Eastern Service for global Anglophone literature and literary broadcasting. He traces how modernist writers used radio to experiment with form and introduce postcolonial literature to global audiences.
The American Stamp by Laura Goldblatt & Richard Handler
More than three thousand different images appeared on United States postage stamps from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Limited at first to the depiction of a small cast of characters and patriotic images, postal iconography gradually expanded as the Postal Service sought to depict the country's history in all its diversity. This vast breadth has helped make stamp collecting a widespread hobby and made stamps into consumer goods. Examining the canon of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American stamps, Laura Goldblatt and Richard Handler show how postal iconography and material culture offer a window into the contested meanings and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. They argue that postage stamps, which are both devices to pay for a government service and purchasable items themselves, embody a crucial tension: is democracy defined by political agency or the freedom to buy? The changing images and uses of stamps reveal how governmental authorities have attempted to navigate between public service and businesslike efficiency, belonging and exclusion, citizenship and consumerism. Stamps are vehicles for state messaging, and what they depict is tied up with broader questions of what it means to be American. Goldblatt and Handler combine historical, sociological, and iconographic analysis of a vast quantity of stamps with anthropological exploration of how postal customers and stamp collectors behave. At the crossroads of several disciplines, this book casts the symbolic and material meanings of stamps in a wholly new light.