ULibraries Research Guides: Evaluating Sources: SIFT &amp; PICK, RADAR, &amp; ACT UP: Peer Reviewed Articles through UlrichsWeb

Peer Review Process

Peer review is a term that generally applies to research articles in scholarly journals.

1. Scholar writes a paper and submits it to a journal.

2. Journal editor sends the paper to other scholars for anonymous review of quality and originality:

Was the work done properly?
Does the research contribute something new?
Is the subject matter
appropriate for this journal?
Is the paper written well enough for other scholars to understand it?

3. Editor uses the reviewers' comments and recommendations to accept the paper or to reject it. Most accepted papers require revisions to become a scholarly article.

Taken from http://www.lib.uci.edu/how/tutorials/FindScienceInformation/public/

How to use Refereed (Peer Reviewed) Journals through UlrichsWeb

If you want to find the referreed (which means peer-reviewed) journals, you can use UlrichsWeb. This database provides a variety of information about journals, periodicals, and serials, including name, address, pricing, and publishing information. All entries are searchable by title, subject, language, and vendor.

1. From Research Databases open the UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory. Type the name of a journal, for example "The Journal of Academic Librarianship", click the search button.

2. In the new page, find the black and white referee jersey next to the title of journal. If you see the jersey, it means that the journal has peer reviewed articles. If not, you can use a different journal.

3. If you click on the title of journal, you will see the jersey and a Yes in the Refereed raw.

4. If you don't see the jersey, you can either choose a different journal or you can search in Google or Wikipedia for the journal title. By searching the journal title, you can usually get some information about whether or not the journal has an editorial board or does peer review. For instance, the Elsevier website explains that The Journal of Academic Librarianship is refereed.