UWE Library Services

Is this journal peer-reviewed?

What do we mean by ‘Peer-Review’?

A peer-reviewed article is:

• written by experts AND

• reviewed/critically assessed by several other experts in that field of study before it is published

...in order to:

• check the article’s quality and accuracy.

For a more detailed discussion, see Wikipedia: Peer Review

Should I only use peer-reviewed journals?

A journal article doesn’t have to be peer-reviewed to still be considered ‘scholarly’.

It is however an extra benchmark to measure the reliability of the research the article contains.

Should I only use peer-reviewed journals?

A ‘scholarly’ article which isn’t peer-reviewed may be a valuable source of research.

You can use the ‘Is this article scholarly’ checklist which follows to help assess whether you think the article is suitable to use as evidence to support your own theory or critical thinking.

(1) Try limiting your search to only Peer Reviewed articles

(1) Try limiting your search to only Peer Reviewed articles

Identifying peer-reviewed articlesIdentifying peer-reviewed articles

Peer-reviewedPeer-reviewed

Already found an article and want to check if it is peer reviewed?

Already found an article and want to check if it is peer reviewed?

Can you look at a printed copy of the journal from off the shelf?

Can you look at a printed copy of the journal from off the shelf?

(2) Check to see if it indicates it has a peer-review process

(2) Check to see if it indicates it has a peer-review processYES

NO

(3) Check in Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory.

(3) Check in Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory.

Is there an indication of it being peer-reviewed?

Is there an indication of it being peer-reviewed?

(4) Evaluate how scholarly the article you are interested in is.

(4) Evaluate how scholarly the article you are interested in is.

Peer-reviewedPeer-reviewedDoes this indicate if the journal has a

peer-review process?Does this indicate if the journal has a

peer-review process?

NO

NO

YES

YES

(1) Try limiting your search to only Peer Reviewed articles

Some databases will allow you to select only the ‘peer-reviewed’ articles from any results you find from a search.

Other databases may allow you to select an option to only search for peer-reviewed articles in the first place (such as Business Source Premier, EconLit or Health Management Information Consortium on Ebsco).

(1) Try limiting your search to only Peer Reviewed articles

(2) Check to see if a peer-review process is mentioned in a printed copy of the journalIf available, have a look in a printed copy of the journal to

see if it indicates it has gone through a peer-review process.

This will normally be included in one of the following locations:-

The journal Masthead (normally within the first few or last few pages of an issue of the journal, listing publication details, editors etc.)

In any ‘instructions for authors/contributors’ on how to submit an article. The inside back cover or front cover of an issue.

“... all manuscripts published by Dekker journals are peer-reviewed...“

“... all submissions will be blind reviewed… the guidelines for reviewers are available on the AMJ Web page...“

“... all document information identifying the author should be removed to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees…“

(2) Check to see if a peer-review process is mentioned in a printed copy of the journalWhat else to look for:

If it doesn’t explicitly state articles are peer-reviewed, look for instruction on how to submit a manuscript for publication. If you found any instructions similar to “submit three printed copies to…” then the journal is probably peer-reviewed.

  You may need to check more than one issue of a journal – publishers may not

include submission information in all issues of their journal, and sometimes this will only be included in a single issues during any one year.

(3) Check in Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory.

You can use a directory of serials and periodicals, such as Ulrichsweb.com which may include details as to whether a specific publication goes through a peer-review process.

Ulrich’s can be accessed via the A-Z list of databases:

(3) Check in Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory.

You can then search for the journal by title (exact) or title (keyword).

In the results list, any journal which undergoes a peer-review process (for at least some of its content) is denoted by a symbol (a referee’s shirt).

(4) Evaluating how scholarly an article is

• If it isn’t clear if a journal is peer-reviewed or not, you will need to use your own judgment to evaluate whether the article you are interested in is of a suitable standard to use for the purpose you intend.

• One measure you could use is how ‘scholarly’ an article is. When we describe an article as ‘scholarly’ we mean an article which appears to have undertaken extensive and appropriate research on a topic. This is to distinguish it from those articles which may be more ‘newsy’ in their content and are just informing readers of recent developments without any in depth research to support any.

• A ‘scholarly’ article which isn’t peer-reviewed may still be a valuable source of research. You can use the checklist which follows to help assess whether you think the article is suitable to use as evidence to support your own theory or critical thinking.

1) Does the article use technical or academic terminology e.g. ‘looked-after children’, or ‘substance abusers’ rather than ‘drug addicts’?

1) Does the article use technical or academic terminology e.g. ‘looked-after children’, or ‘substance abusers’ rather than ‘drug addicts’?

2) Does the author include a list of references to other works they have used to support their research?

2) Does the author include a list of references to other works they have used to support their research?

3) Does the author include a summary of the methodology by which the research was conducted or the literature reviewed?

3) Does the author include a summary of the methodology by which the research was conducted or the literature reviewed?

Use cautionUse caution

Use cautionUse caution

Use cautionUse caution

The more ‘Yes’ answers you can tick off, the more ‘scholarly’ the article is likely

to be.

The more ‘Yes’ answers you can tick off, the more ‘scholarly’ the article is likely

to be.

NO

NO

NO

YES

YES

YES