One of the easiest ways to tell if a source is peer-reviewed is to Google the “container.” The container is the host of your source, so a specific journal is generally the container of a journal article and a specific book is generally the container of a book chapter. The official description of the journal or book should say if it is peer-reviewed. Peer-reviewed articles often follow a standard format, with an “Abstract” section at the beginning and a “References” section at the end.
If you are searching within a database, like GALILEO, you often have the option to add the “peer-reviewed” filter. This should ensure all results returned are peer-reviewed, but it doesn’t hurt to double check the container, as described above.
Note that only scholarly sources are peer-reviewed, not popular sources. So it’s unlikely that a newspaper article from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or your favorite popular science book is peer-reviewed.
