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What is Peer Review?

A scholarly journal which requires that each article submitted for publication be judged by an independent panel of experts (scholarly or scientific peers). Peer-reviewed articles are also called refereed articles. In many cases the article has been subjected to a blind review process (author's name is not known) by one or more external readers. Articles not approved by a majority of these peers are not accepted for publication by the journal.

Examples of peer-reviewed journals:

Journal of the American Medical Association
North American Journal of Economics and Finance
Rural Sociology
Twentieth Century British History
Journal of Women, Politics & Policy

There is no one place you can go for a list of all peer-reviewed journals. The most authoritative source available is Ulrich's Periodicals Directory which is available both online and in print.

Using Ulrich's Periodicals Directory online: The online version of Ulrich's Periodicals Directory is available under U in Databases A-Z. Search by title, keyword or subject for your journal(s). Journals with the "Refereed" icon in front of the title are peer-reviewed/refereed.

To access Ulrich's off campus, please visit Connect from Home for details.

Note: Only full-length articles in a refereed journal identified by Ulrich's Periodicals Directory are peer-reviewed. Short articles like editorials, reviews, or commentaries, are not peer-reviewed.

If you have any confusion identifying a peer-reviewed article, please feel free to contact our Reference Librarians.

Many online databases that include both popular and scholarly articles have the option to search only for articles that are "Peer Reviewed" or "Refereed." By checking a box, you can easily limit to peer reviewed articles. Some examples are provided below. For those databases not listed, check the database's Help screens to find out if limiting by peer reviewed is available.

	EBSCOhost
	Gale
	ProQuest
	HW Wilson

Learn More:

Finding Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (University of South Florida)

If you have any questions, please contact our Reference Librarians.

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