Chemistry Seminar - Fall 2025 (21:160:453 / 26:160:601)
What is Peer-Review?
What Is a Peer-Reviewed Article?
A peer-reviewed article has been evaluated by a group of professional peers solicited from the requested journal publication using rigorous selection standards prior to publication.
The process, however, is not perfect. There are times when an article has been retracted after peer review and publication due to simple mistakes, fraud, or misconduct. They can be initiated by the authors of the paper, their institution, or the journal editors. For this reason, it is still important to evaluate information critically.
FINDING OTHER SCHOLARLY SOURCES
WHERE SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR OTHER SCHOLARLY INFORMATION?
| Academic Search Premier |
This is a multi-disciplinary database offering information in nearly every area of academic study, including arts, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, ethnic studies, engineering, language and linguistics, literature, medical sciences, philosophy, physics, psychology, religion, social sciences, and more. The collection contains peer-reviewed scholarly journals, magazines, several major newspapers, and a limited number of books, conference proceedings, and government publications. This EBSCOHost Database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
| Scopus |
This is a citation and abstract database of peer-reviewed literature. It contains over 50 million records in the areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage strongest in the physical sciences (7,200+ titles) and health sciences (6,800+ titles), followed by the life sciences (4,300+ titles), and finally the social sciences & humanities (5,300+ titles). More than 25,000 titles (including open access journals) from around the world are covered in Scopus. Use Rutgers Interlibrary Loan Service (ILLiad) to access full text of articles that Scopus may only have abstract access. This Elsevier Database requires a Rutgers NETID login for access. |
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CATALOG - Find materials from the Rutgers Libraries, including books, journals, articles & more. If fulltext is not available, you can request the article from Rutgers InterLibrary Loan Service (ILLiad).
GOOGLE SCHOLAR - web search that filters for scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. If logged into your Rutgers account you can use the "Get It @R" link next to articles that are accessible from Rutgers Libraries. If full text is not available, you can request the article from Rutgers InterLibrary Loan Service (ILLiad).
HOW TO CRITICALLY EVALUATE SOURCES
Image Source: AiPPT. (2025). Gamma. https://gamma.app.
The SIFT Method is an evaluation strategy developed by digital literacy expert, Mike Caufield to help determine whether online content can be trusted for credible or reliable sources of information. Image is adapted from his materials with a CC BY 4.0 license.