Information is all around us, and we are constantly seeking it.
Information goes through cycles from inspiration to publication to dissemination and back to inspiration.
These videos from the library at University of South Australia do a great job of describing the research process, the types of information out there, what "scholarly" really means, and how to evaluate what you find:
Plan Your Search (2:26)
Scholarly Sources Explained (2:22)
Evaluating Information (3:17)
Articles submitted for peer review go through a vigorous process of inspection and consideration.
Watch the video, "Peer Review in 3 Minutes" for all the basics on peer reviewed journal articles.
When searching in the SPU Library Article Databases, look for the "Peer Reviewed" check box under Filters/Limit your results when you begin your search:
or after your search you can pull out the peer reviewed articles from your results:
When you find an article on the Internet, it may not be clear whether it is from a peer reviewed journal.
To determine whether a journal is peer reviewed,