Biology Research Guide

Peer-Reviewed Literature means articles that have been vetted before publication in a scientific journal. Most of the time, you will need peer-reviewed articles in your classes. You can find them in ONESearch and other databases.

Types of peer reviewed articles include:

• Primary literature: the original research, with the original data, as published by the Biologists who did the experiment or other research. Your professors will most often ask you to cite this kind of research in your assignments.
• Literature Reviews: a summary of other people's original research; they are a synthesis of the current research on a given topic. They can be a great place to FIND citations for primary literature, so you can look up those articles instead, but you usually can't cite reviews as sources in your assignments.

Grey literature includes material that hasn't been through the peer-review process, but may still be valuable to you. This can include pre-prints (articles awaiting peer-review), reports, and data (especially from federal agencies, like the CDC, EPA, etc.) In some cases, you may be able to use grey literature in your assignments. ALWAYS check with your professor before citing grey literature in your assignments. Your best bet for finding this literature is in the citations of your peer-reviewed articles, or at places like Science.gov.