Journal Articles: STEP 5: Identifying peer-reviewed journals

Some scholarly journals are peer-reviewed or refereed, meaning that articles submitted for publication must be approved by a panel of reviewers who are considered experts in their fields. Because they are highly selective, peer-reviewed journals are often regarded as the best in their field.

Not all journals go through the peer-review process. To determine whether your journal article is peer-reviewed or refereed, you must first find out if the overall journal that the article is published in is peer-reviewed or refereed. The following are several suggestions for determining if a journal is peer-reviewed/refereed or not:

1. Check the journal
   If you have the print/paper copy (or a complete online/pdf version) of the journal, look at the first couple of pages or the last few pages for information about the journal. Some journals will state that they are "peer-reviewed" or "refereed". You can also look at the contributor or author information. Is there a review policy? Is there an editorial board? Are authors required to submit more than one copy of their manuscripts? If yes, these are good indications that the journal is peer-reviewed/refereed. You could also check to see if the journal has its own website and look for editorial statements or instructions to authors there.
    
2. Limit your search in a database
   Some periodical indexes or article databases will allow you to limit a search to only peer-reviewed journals or have search results grouped by publication type (e.g. peer-reviewed journals). This is NOT a 100% guarantee that the journals listed as "peer-reviewed" are actually peer-reviewed. Try some of the other options provided to double check that the journal is peer reviewed.
    
3. Search Ulrichsweb (formerly Ulrich's International Periodical Directory)
   Ulrichsweb provides useful information about all types of periodicals (academic and scholarly journals, popular magazines, newspapers, etc.) and can be used to determine if a journal is peer-reviewed.

3A. Type Ulrichsweb into OMNI's search box and click Search:

3B. Locate Ulrich's on your list of results. Click on the Available Online link:

 3C. Click again on the full text link:

3D. In Ulrich's, look up your journal. Type the journal title into the search box and press enter, or click on the green magnifying glass icon  to search:

3E. From your results, look at the columns next to the journal you were looking for.  If a "Refereed" (referee shirt) icon appears in column 2 it shows that the journal is peer-reviewed:

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