Peer_Reviewed_Articles

Running head: PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES Peer-Reviewed Articles Peer-reviewed Articles Peer-reviewed articles go through a series of reviews by different scholars who do not know the author such as professors, colleagues and doctors. They read the articles, dissect and critique each sentence and do research to make sure that the information in the article is in-fact accurate. This gives the readers a feeling of trust in the article that it contains true and proven material. The purpose of this paper is to clearly expound upon the details, the importance, and the process of peer-reviews. The importance of peer review is to make sure that the manuscript that is going to be published for the medical community to read is authentic, free of bias or falsified information, typographic errors and written the language of the journal it is intended for (Engle, 2009). A peer-reviewed journal is one that other practitioner-scholars can get reliable research methods and results from for the care of his or her own patients or personal education. The peer-review process is a way to make sure that this manuscript is complete with substantial information for the medical community that will not confuse other researcher or educators. Peer-review is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online as “a process by which something proposed (as for research or publication) is evaluated by a group of experts in the appropriate field (2010).” Peer-reviews are important because they used in journals, which are read by many medical professionals who depend on a high quality of integrity and depend on the material and results to be proven enough to possibly try in their own practice to improve patient care and safety. So only the best articles pass the peer-review process and make it into a peer-reviewed journal. The procedures and guidelines for peer-reviews of journal articles are different for many publications. The E-Learning Companion explains that the more reliable will be examined by what is called a Blind Peer Review (Watkins & Corry, 2009). The process of peer-reviews is found in a paper written by Stevan Harnad, posted online and starts out with the author sending his article to the editor, who then sends it to reviewers (referees). The reviewers do not know each other and do not know the author; they are specialists in the field that was identified in the manuscript. They will read and critique the manuscript identifying problem areas and making suggestions to the correction of it and then make a final recommendations to the editor who will also review it and return it to the author for corrections then make the decision to publish it or not (Harnad, 1997). The process of retrieving an article from a scholarly journal that was peer reviewed from the Walden library was accomplished by searching for the particular journal. I had a print out of an article that I received from work that was of significant interest to me. I clicked on Find an Article and then entered the information I had in the “search by citation” blocks. I was then directed to click into the Walden 360 Link which gave me the option to pull the article up with Sage Premier 2010. The article came up and I was able to access the full text. The process of retrieving scholarly journals started out by entering my topic of interest in nursing experience in the workplace and management. I entered, “bullying nurses in the workplace”, in the top CINHAL/MEDLINE search block. This resulted in 44359 related articles. After reviewing numerous articles I found the one entitled, “Workplace bullying experienced by nurses newly licensed in Massachusetts and the relationship to intention to leave the organization.” I noticed with each day I returned to enter the same or similar words the related articles were different so I stuck with the first one I chose. This was a doctoral dissertation and a full text was not found in the Walden Library. In summary, peer-reviewed articles are meant to be unbiased blind reviews of the manuscripts that have been written by practitioner-scholars. The final publication of the article should be one that can be proven and increases the knowledge of research methods with adequate results. A very reliable journal will have strict blind peer-review procedures and guidelines in place so as to be able to publish an article that is wholly trustworthy. Reference Engle, M. (2009). Distinguishing scholarly articles from other periodicals. Retrieved from Cornell University online library on November 13, 2010 from: http://olinuris .library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill20.html Harnad, S. (1997,September 26). Learned Inquiry and the Net: The Role of Peer Review, Peer Commentary and Copyright. Retrieved November 13, 2010, from University of Southampton School of Electronics and Computer Science: http://eprints,ecs.soton.ac.uk/2633/3/harnad98.toronto.learnedpub.html Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (2010). Retrieved on November 12, 2010 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peer%20review Quine, L. (2001). Journal of Health Psychology. Workplace bullying in nurses. Retrieved November 13, 2010 from Sage Publications: http://hpq.sagepub.com .ezp.waldenulibrary.org/search'submit=yes&andorexactfulltext=and&resourcetype=1&disp_type=&sortspec=relevance&author1=quine&fulltext=workplace+bullying+in+nurses Watkins, R., & Corry, M. (2009). E-learning companion: A student’s guide to online success (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.