Research databases contain mainly professional/scientific journals. Some databases may also contain newspapers, magazines, trade magazines, and other publications. Whether you're searching in the library catalog or in a research database from the library website, you'll often find a filter on the left or right sidebar to limit your results by publication type.
Most professional/scientific journals go through a rigorous editorial process called peer-review. Look at the slideshow below for hints and ways to identify whether your article has gone through that process:
The library catalog is one of the few places that labels resources as "peer reviewed" within the results. It's a clear way of identifying the type of source you're looking at within the results. View example article that's peer-reviewed.
In the library catalog and in research databases from the library website, you'll often see a sidebar filter to narrow your results by publication type. View an example search that applies a peer-review filter.
Look in the "About the Journal", "Editorial Process" or "Overview" page of the publication page to see whether the journal has a review process before publishing articles. Often times, if they go through the work of a peer-review process, they will want you to know about it and will speak to that process on one of those main pages. They will often talk about how they do a peer-review process (double blind, at least X number of reviewers, etc.). View an example overview page from Agronomy Journal.
