Skip to Main Content

Psychology - Plant City: Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Instructions written by Mr. Stephen Madonna, Psychology Instructor

How to find peer-reviewed articles in the library

The file below called "How to Find a Peer-Reviewed Article" are very detailed instructions from your professor, Mr. Madonna.  Also on this page are screenshots from the library catalog as well as from our library databases.  

Find books, articles, videos, & more

How to Find the Library Catalog and Filter by Peer-Reviewed

After searching your topic in the Library Catalog (Primo), look at the left side of the screen.

Select "Peer-reviewed Journals" and "Apply Filters" to see only results that have been Peer-Reviewed. You can also Filter by Resource Type, Publication Date, and so on.

Using the Library Online Catalog

Search for Articles

An option to locate peer-reviewed articles through the HCC Library Online Catalog is using the Articles and More button.  

Articles and More option button

HCC Library Online Catalog

Filter options are built into the HCC Library Online Catalog to help narrow search results.  One filter option is Peer-Reviewed Journals.  

Availability Filter showing peer-reviewed journals as an option

Another filter to use based on your instructor's directions, change the Publication Date range to the last 10 years.  See the picture below for an example.  After changing the date range, you must choose Refine for the library catalog to resort with updated results reflecting the publication date range change.

Publication Date Range Filter changed to read 2013 to 2024

Search Results and Evaluate

Once your search results populate, now you need to evaluate those results.  Since we chose the Peer-Reviewed Filter, all articles in the results should be from Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly resources, but it also a good practice to double check and make sure.  How do we do this?

Evaluate Results Confirming Peer-Reviewed

The link PTSD Library Catalog Peer Reviewed Search Results brings you to the HCC Library Catalog with search results filtered to Peer-Reviewed articles with a Publication Date range of 2013-2024.

  1. Open an article record by choosing an article title in the search results
  2. Look at the publication title where the article is published, such as Depression and Anxiety.
  3. Go to the Top Header of the Library Catalog web page
    1. Choose Find a Journal
  4. Top header of the library catalog showing the find a journal tab
  5. Type the Journal name in the search box
  6. Open the Journal catalog record
  7. Open the Journal through the library database link in the View Online Section
    1. This opens the journal record in the database
    2. Look at the journal information listed
      1. Peer reviewed is a section listed and it will say Yes if the journal is really peer-reviewed
      2. journal title information showing peer reviewed

     

Using the Library Online Databases

Library Online Catalog Top Header

The top header on the Library Online Catalog web page has an option called Databases A-Z.  Choose the Databases A-Z option to view and access the online databases available through the HCC Library Online Databases.

Filter by Subject

Similar to the Online Library Catalog, the Library Database A-Z listing has filter options to help narrow results.  Also the filter options helps the user determine what is the best databases to use for a given topic/subject, like psychology, or type of information needed, such as article, video, news, etc.

  • Choose the Subject Filter pull down menu option.  

Databases A-Z listing with the All Subjects pull down menu

  • Next, scroll through the list of subjects and choose Psychology
  • Database A-Z Filter by Subject with Psychology chosen

Open the database called Health and Wellness (Gale).

Finding Journal Information in a Library Database

Type your search term in the search term box.  When the results populate, use the following steps to narrow results to peer-reviewed sources:

  1. Choose Academic Journals in the Showing Results For section  
  2. Health and Wellness database search results showing in academic journals
  3. Next, review filter options for peer review and publication date range per instructor's assignment criteria.
  4. Filter Your Results publication date range and peer reviewed checked
  5. When results populate after choosing Apply once the filter options are selected, look for the peer review check in the search results
  6. peer reviewed check