A refereed article is a publication that has undergone an extensive review process. Some journals require all articles submitted for publication to be refereed. The referee process involves several steps. A researcher writes an article and submits it to a journal editor for publication. A group of subject specialists (known as referees) read and assess the validity of the article. Some articles are accepted by the referees, some are returned to the author for re-writing, some are rejected. Journals containing refereed articles are called refereed journals.

Refereed journals are sometimes referred to as peer-reviewed or scholarly journals.

In general, refereed articles:
• undergo a review process by other scholars/subject specialists
• report on original research
• are written by experts in the subject area
• are published in refereed journals that have little or no advertising.