Is it Peer Reviewed? - COMM COR 2020 - Introduction to Research Methods - Harken - Research Guides at University of Northern Iowa

Peer-Review Check - Option #1 - "Scholar's Portal"

Scholar's Portal - Peer Review Check for Journals
This open access database created by the Canadian Center for Research Libraries and the Ontario Council of University Libraries can be used in lieu of Ulrich's Web (which hasn't been working off campus).

Scroll down to page to the "white colored" section of the page - to the search blank Find Journals / By Title. Type in the name of your journal. Then scroll down through the search results to find your journal. Peer-review is indicated by a bold hard-to-miss black-and-white box. Not all journals listed in Scholar's Portal are peer-reviewed - watch for the presence or absence of that black-and-white peer-reviewed label.

More about Scholar's Portal

Peer-Review Check - Option #2 - "UlrichsWeb"

UlrichsWeb (checking to see if a journal is refereed or peer-reviewed)
Type the name of the journal or a field of interest into UlrichsWeb.

If the journal has a "black-and-white referee's shirt" icon in the third column it IS refereed (or peer reviewed).

For instance, if I search for journals with the word "communication" in the title UlrichsWeb indicates that:

Communication Review is refereed (it is peer reviewed)

Better Communication is not

Communication Reports is not

WARNING the black-and-white referee's shirt icon is the icon to watch for when determining if a journal is peer-reviewed (refereed). Do not pay any attention to the gold stars (which are labeled "reviewed" ... but in this case that just means the journal was "reviewed" by a librarian for UlrichsWeb ... it does NOT mean that the journal is "peer reviewed").

You can also click on the title of the entry - e.g. The Communication Review - and then click on the option "Additional Title Details" which will also confirm that the journal is indeed "peer reviewed".

About Peer Review and Databases that limit to Peer-Reviewed Journals

To maintain high levels of quality and reliability, the most respected and dependable journals require all manuscripts (potential articles) to be reviewed by other experts (peers) to determine whether the submitted scholarship meets the high standards of the journal.

This process is called peer review and journals that utilize peer review are often referred to as refereed journals.

To be sure you are using the highest quality research and scholarship in your projects you should gather your materials from peer reviewed journals / refereed journals

How can you be sure you are working with a peer-reviewed journal?

When searching library databases you will often have an option to limit to Peer Reviewed articles. For the databases Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) or APA PsycInfo sure to check the box for "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" found farther down the search page before completing your search:

When searching OneSearch you can limit your results after you search by clicking on the "Peer-reviewed Journals" option found on the right-hand column of the results page:

However, you might find an article using Google Scholar. Since you can't limit to peer-reviewed journals with these techniques you need to use the database UlrichsWeb or Scholar's Portal to determine if the journal that published your article was refereed (peer-reviewed).