Created by Kimbel Library, Coastal Carolina University
All peer-reviewed articles are scholarly, but not all scholarly articles are peer-reviewed.
Peer-reviewed is the process by which a journal article gets accepted (or rejected) for publication. After an author submits an article to a peer-reviewed journal, an editor sends the article to other experts (usually two or three) in the discipline who critique the article, and then make a recommendation on whether the article merits publication. Often the reviewers suggest changes to be made before the article can be published. The author will generally make the changes and then resubmit the article for consideration. This process is done without the reviewers knowing the name of the author, and the author not knowing the names of the reviewers. The peer-review process ensures that only the best scholarship gets published.