Scholarly articles and other scholarly resources are published for an audience of researchers, not for the general public.
Scholarly articles accepted for publication in a "peer reviewed" journal have been analyzed by experts with deep knowledge of the subject. These "peers" will have reviewed the paper, including its assumptions, research question, literature review, methodology and results, and have assessed the findings to determine the originality and soundness of the research presented for publication. Once the peer review process is complete, the article can be accepted it for publication as is, be revised before publication, or be rejected altogether. Think of peer review as a quality control process.
"Refereed" journals are "peer reviewed."