What are “refereed” and “peer reviewed” journal articles?
Refereed articles are normally assumed to be substantial works of scholarship which have gone through a peer-reviewing process before being published in a scholarly journal for a scholarly audience. Peer-reviewing means that the paper is submitted to experts in the field for assessment (much like a thesis) before being accepted for publication, or rejected. Remember that not all articles published in refereed journals are themselves refereed. Examples of articles likely to have been peer-reviewed include communications of (and commentaries on) original research, critical scholarly texts, and reviews of a field of research. See Types of Information Sources for a more detailed explanation.
