Help: Guide to Peer Reviewed (Refereed) Journals
Abstract: Find out what "peer reviewed" means, and how to use library resources to locate peer reviewed journals and articles.
What is a Peer Reviewed Journal? | How to Find Out if it's Peer Reviewed | Limiting to Peer Review | Magazines vs. Journals
What is a Peer Reviewed Journal?
In a peer reviewed journal (also known as refereed) drafts of articles are critically assessed by other scholars in the author's field or specialty before they are accepted for publication.
Peer review is the accepted method for ensuring that information is of the highest quality.
Just because a journal is peer reviewed does not guarantee that all articles in it are included in the peer review process. Some article types, such as news items, editorials and book and article reviews, may not be peer reviewed.
Learn more:
- What is a Peer-Reviewed Journal? (University of Illinois/Urbana - Champaign)
How Do I Find Out if a Journal is Peer Reviewed?
In a peer reviewed journal (also known as refereed) drafts of articles are critically assessed by other scholars in the author's field or specialty before they are accepted for publication. Peer review is the accepted method for ensuring that information is of the highest quality.
Just because a journal is peer reviewed does not guarantee that all articles in it are included in the peer review process. Some article types, such as news items, editorials and book and article reviews, may not be peer reviewed.
To find out if a journal is peer reviewed/refereed, use Ulrich's Periodical Directory. For example, you can use the advanced search to look for journals on particular subjects that are also refereed:
Or, if looking up a journal by title, look for the "refereed" icon next to the title:
Limiting to Peer Review in Databases
Some of the library's article databases allow you to limit your search results to peer reviewed articles only. In Academic Search Premier from EBSCOhost, you can check a box to limit results to articles from peer reviewed journals:
For a listing of all EBSCOhost databases available to the NAU community, see the menu.
In Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) databases like Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management, you can view subsets from your search results, including "Peer-Reviewed Journals":
For a listing of all available CSA databases, see the menu.
Remember that not all articles or items that are published in a peer reviewed journals (editorials, reviews, letters, etc.) will necessarily have gone through the peer review process.
You can check the Help screens of other databases to find out if limiting by peer review is available and how to use this function.
Learn More:
- Finding Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (University of South Florida)
- Locating Articles in Scholarly Journals (Elizabethtown Community and Technical College Library)
- Help- Finding Peer Reviewed Journal Articles (Cal State Pomona Libraries)
What is a Magazine? What is a Journal?
| Magazines | Journals |
|---|---|
| Examples: Time, Life, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Popular Science | Examples: Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of the American Medical Association, American Sociological Review, Journal of Psychology |
| Audience: General public to knowledgeable layperson | Audience: Scholars, specialists, and students |
| Written by: Professional journalists; not necessarily specialists in the field; poets and writers of fiction, essayists | Written by: Specialists in the field; usually scholars with PhDs. |
| Timeliness: More current than books | Timeliness: More current than books |
| Content: Popular topics; current affairs; general discussion; editorial opinion; graphics; photographs; advertisements; usually no bibliography or list of sources | Content: Research results, frequently theoretical in nature; detailed examination; statistical analysis; graphics; bibliography usually included |
| Primary Source: First hand accounts; original reporting; etc. | Primary Source: Reports of original research; case studies; clinical studies; etc. |
| Slant: May reflect the editorial bias / slant of the magazine | Slant: Supposed to present objective/neutral viewpoint; may be difficult to comprehend because of technical language or jargon; often sponsored by professional associations |
Magazines are often sold on the newsstand and in many—but not all—cases may have a more graphic look with more advertising and photographs and slicker paper. |
Journals are often produced by the academic community; sometimes they are a benefit of membership to a society or organization. In many—but not all—cases journals may have a more scholarly appearance. |
Learn More:
- What is a Peer Reviewed Journal? (Valinor.ca)
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This page last modified
March 27, 2009
