What does scholarly mean? What does peer-reviewed mean?
Answer
Scholarly/peer-reviewed articles are those that have been written by an authoritative source in a given field of study. Before their research may be published in a peer-reviewed journal, however, authors submit their work for review and approval by other scholars/experts in the field. This process, called "peer review", is lengthy, and often requires the revision and resubmission of a researcher's work.
In most databases, you may limit your search to only peer-reviewed materials by checking the "peer-reviewed" box, either before or after conducting your search. If you don't see this option, look for an option to limit to academic journals. Be CAREFUL-- check the search results carefully, even when using the "peer-reviewed" search filter. It's not 100% fool-proof and non-scholarly materials often show up in the search results.