In this 3 minute video, learn how articles get peer reviewed and what role peer review plays in scholarly research and publication.
Peer-reviewed articles are published in journals that use the peer-review process. They are sometimes called "refereed" journals.
One way to make sure that you're searching for peer-reviewed journals is by applying a limiter during your search. A "peer reviewed" or "scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals" limiter or checkbox is available in some of the library's databases.
An example of the peer-review limiter in a ProQuest database
Another way to check if a journal is peer-reviewed is to look it up in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (also known as UlrichsWeb). Ulrich's is a database that contains information about periodicals, such as journals, newspapers, magazines, and more. One of the pieces of information Ulrich's contains is whether or not a journal is peer-reviewed (refereed).
1. Open Ulrich's Periodicals Directory.
2. Ulrich's maintains information at the journal level. This means that you need to search it by journal title, not article title. Type in the journal's title in the search box, and click the green search button.
For example, here is an example reference:
Wynn, T., and Coolidge, F.L. 2016. Archeological insights into hominin cognitive evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 25: 200-213.
In this example, Evolutionary Anthropology is the name of the journal. This is what you'd enter into the UlrichsWeb search box.
3. In Ulrich's, peer-reviewed journals are called "refereed" journals. In the search results, an icon of a referee's jersey (a striped shirt) indicates that a journal is peer-reviewed/refereed.
Since Evolutionary Anthropology has an icon of a referee's jersey listed next to it, this means that the journal is peer reviewed.
4. Remember that not every article published in a peer-reviewed journal is peer-reviewed. Articles like editorials and books reviews don't go through the peer-review process. However, research articles are peer-reviewed.