Several databases have a check box or filter to limit your search results to peer reviewed research.
Indexes leading journals in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences. Allows cited reference searching. (ISI Web of Knowledge) [1900 - present]
To most effectively find relevant journal articles in Biosis Previews, Web of Science, Scopus, and other databases, see instructions (from Bio1B) on how to develop keywords, build a search, and broaden or narrow a search. In a nutshell, to broaden a search, think about using truncation, combining synonyms with 'OR', or decreasing the number of concepts in your search. To narrow a search, consider introducing concepts to your search by adding additional search terms with 'AND', using more specific search terms, using phrase searching (""), or using filters/limits.
For example, if my topic were how manatees in Florida are impacted by poor water quality, my search in BIOSIS Previews might be: florida manatees AND (red tide* OR harmful alga* OR water quality). [Too narrow? Maybe remove 'Florida' and look at manatees more generally]
From your search results, you can identify a relevant article and then use the database's tools to help you find more.
For example, here is a relevant 2015 article from my first page of search results:
You can see more recent papers that have cited this paper (citations, 33 papers), view this paper's reference list (cited references, 33 papers), and find similar articles ("View Related Records") using the Citation Network:
