CalPoly

Finding Peer-reviewed or Refereed Journals

Description and Purpose

Many scholarly journals use a process of peer review prior to publishing an article, whereby other scholars in the author's field or specialty critically assess a draft of the article. Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed journals) are scholarly journals that only publish articles that have passed through this review process. The review process helps ensure that the published articles reflect solid scholarship in their fields.

Peer-Reviewed Journals versus Scholarly Journals

Scholarly journals contain articles written by, and addressed to, experts in a discipline. They are concerned with academic study, especially research, and demonstrate the methods and concerns of scholars. The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to report original research or experimentation and to communicate this information to the rest of the scholarly world. The language of scholarly journals reflects the discipline covered, as it assumes some knowledge or background on the part of the reader. Scholarly journals always rigorously cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies. Many scholarly journals are published by professional organizations.

While not all scholarly journals go through the peer-review process, it is usually safe to assume that a peer-reviewed journal is also scholarly.

Finding Peer-Reviewed Journals and Journal Articles

There is no comprehensive source for identifying all peer-reviewed journals. To help determine if a particular journal is peer-reviewed, refer to the journal itself (either to an individual issue of the journal or to the publisher's web site) or to Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory (volume 5 of Ulrich's lists the major peer-reviewed journals within the "Refereed Serials" section). The Directory may be requested at the Reference Desk at Kennedy Library.

However, some online databases to which the Library subscribes have begun to flag the peer-reviewed journals so they can be searched in the database. Following is a list of databases offering peer-reviewed journal searching.

General Academic, Interdisciplinary Databases (representing no single discipline)

Academic Search Elite (some full-text articles)

Under Limit Your Results, check the "Peer-Reviewed/Refereed Journals" box on the main search screen

Expanded Academic Index (some full-text articles)

Check the box to limit "to peer-reviewed (refereed) articles" on its main search screen

ProQuest Newsstand (some full-text articles)

Check the "Show peer reviewed articles" box on its main search screen

Social Sciences and Education Databases

ECONbase (full-text articles)

Education Abstracts

At "Search For," type "peer-reviewed journal" in a search box and, from the corresponding pull-down box, select Reviewed Journal Phrase. Type in one or more terms in the next box and select Search.

JSTOR (full-text articles)

Project MUSE (full-text articles)

PsycINFO

Under the "Special Limiters" category, click on the pull-down menu at Special Feature and select "Peer Reviewed"

Wiley InterScience (all full-text articles)

Science Databases

ACS(American Chemical Society) Publications (all full-text articles)

JSTOR (full-text articles)

Science Direct(full-text articles)

Wiley InterScience (full-text articles)

Business Databases

ABI/Inform (some full-text articles)

Check the "Show peer reviewed articles" box on its main search screen

ECONbase (full-text articles)

JSTOR (full-text articles)

Humanities and Arts Databases

Art Abstracts

At "Search For," type "peer-reviewed journal" in a search box and, from the corresponding pull-down box, select Reviewed Journal Phrase. Type in one or more terms in the next box and select Search.

JSTOR (full-text articles)

Project MUSE (full-text articles)