A journal article is often considered more scholarly if it has been published in a peer-reviewed journal. The article is considered to have undergone a more rigorous evaluation process, because the articles in these journals are evaluated not just by editors but also by a number of experts in the field and they must be approved to get published.

Usually a journal is peer-reviewed when:

• It is published or sponsored by a professional scholarly society or association.
• It has a list of reviewers or an editorial board of experts listed inside the front cover, back cover, or on the first few pages.

If you have found your article online in an article database, you can check to see if the database has information about the journal to determine if it is peer-reviewed. Alternatively, you can do an Internet search for your journal's name to see if the publisher's site has any useful information.