The Peer-Review Process is crucial in granting authority and veracity to the category of academic publications. While not the only means of recognizing credibility, and certainly not without its own issues, the peer-review process has been a means of separating the scholarly from the popular categories of publications for many decades. This is where the distinction of journal vs. magazine becomes important. If a researcher needs academic sources for a paper or to reinforce their argument, they'll need to turn to scholarly publications.
In a nutshell, once someone writes an article, that article is sent to a journal for potential publication. In order to be published in a credible, academic journal, the article will need to stand up to a review process that goes well beyond the editor of the journal. The article will be sent ot multiple experts in fields related to the article or journal's disciplines, and these experts will provide feedback to the journal's editorial board. This feedback may be indications that the author needs to add more sources to their research process, adjust the format, or ask for more data to be included in the article in an effort to endure the science presented within is as transparent as possible. Once the requests make it back to the author, and adjustments are made and resubmitted, the article must stand up to review again. This may happen multiple times before being accepted (or rejected!), but if accepted, the article will then be published and have the peer-review approval to grant it the credibility it needs.
While there are many great open-source, academic journals out there, this is an area the library can provide great value in the research process. Salmon Library provides access to many academic databases, many of which will be useful in researching issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these resources will have "COVID-19" research sections, specifically tailored to highlighting content from the database's subject foci to, hopefully, make research more efficient during this pandemic.
Our librarians can offer further guidance as to which tools to use, how to use them, and even recommend other titles not mentioned in this guide as needed. We want you to have access to the most credible information out there, and can help in navigating open web resources to supplement our own offerings.
Below are a just a few recommendations for academic resources. For a more extensive list of Allied Health Resources to explore, follow this link to view our COVID-19 Resources for Researchers and Practicioners.
For a more extensive list of Business/Industry resources, check out the list here: http://libguides.uah.edu/az.php?s=53991. Below are a few recommended resources.