Importance of Peer Review and How to Read Scholarly Materials
Psychology has been influenced by many competing theories that have attempted to explain and predict behavior. In the previous unit, you learned about the foundations of these theories. Theories lead to hypotheses, which lead to research and observation. Peer-reviewed research is the gold standard for primary academic references in your writing and staying up-to-date with credible research in the field of psychology.
To prepare for this discussion, be sure you have completed your reading for this unit and have watched the following two videos from the Purdue Global Library.
Video: Peer Review
Video: How to Read Scholarly Materials
Please respond to the following
What is peer review and why is it important?
What are steps that you can take to understand and read scholarly sources?
Considering the APA ethical principles and the IRB ethical standards described in your reading, why do you think they are so important in the field of psychology when it comes to people and animals?
Peer-Reviewed Sources and Psychology
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What is Peer Review and why is it Important?
Peer-reviewed research is a process that scholars and researchers follow to formulate ideas and analyze experts’ opinions for a better understanding of a specific field such as psychology. Scholars usually follow the process of peer-reviewed research by outlining the methods, analysis, and conclusions that are evaluated by experts before publication to achieve quality academic scientific research (HWC, 2023). Illustratively, in researching social psychology, an author doing scientific research will submit the research paper for initial screening by the journal editor, then anonymous reviewers with expert knowledge in psychology will provide insights on the research determining if the formatting and ethical standards are followed. The feedback from the reviewers will determine if the research can be revised or accepted before a second review that approves for publication. Hence, the main role of a peer review is to determine the quality, validity, and originality of articles for publication in a way that promotes the integrity of science by disqualifying articles that have low quality. It also builds one’s knowledge base of a particular field and also adds credibility.
Steps followed to understand and read Scholarly Sources
Understanding and reading a scholarly source effectively can follow a series of steps such as; First, determining the research question and the subject under which it falls. Second, reading the abstract enables the reader to have an idea about the entire article thus evaluating its relevance to the topic under research. Third, read the introduction and the conclusion, for a deeper understanding of the study area which contains summarized results from the authors. Fourth, thoroughly checking the tables, charts, and graphs where information on the research results will guide in making more analytical research (HWC, 2023). Fifth, read the entire article since at this point the reader is sure the topic relates to the...