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How do I know if a journal is peer reviewed?

Find out how to determine a journal's peer review status.

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Is that Journal Peer-Reviewed?

What is peer review?

Scholarly peer review is also known as refereeing. It is a process that  involves the examination of a paper or book by several experts in the writer's discipline, prior to publication. These experts are the writer's peers.   For a good visual description of the peer review process, see this page.

Peer-reviewed (refereed) articles are of higher quality than non-peer-reviewed articles, which is a reason your faculty may sometimes require you use some peer reviewed articles in your projects.

How do I find these articles?

Certain databases, such as EBSCO, provide a way to filter results so you only get peer-reviewed articles. Not all databases do, though, so if they don't, you have to use another method, and the easiest way to determine whether a journal is peer reviewed is to use UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory, a database where you can search for a journal title to find whether it is peer-reviewed or not. See the short tutorial below.

Using UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory

UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory is a database that allows you to search for a journal's title and then tells you whether that journal is peer-reviewed or not.  Please note that you will need to use your MyPVCC username and password if you are accessing this database off campus.

Step 1

Go to UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory

Step 2

Use the search box to find the journal title you're looking for. Simply enter the name of the journal in the search box and click the Search icon, represented by a magnifying glass.

screenshot of the search box for Ulrichs Web

 

Step 3

Examine the results.Look on the left of a journal's title.  If you see a little icon of a referee's shirt, this means the journal is peer-reviewed.You're done!

image of the peer review icon in Ulrich's database