Is the Journal you're using Peer-reviewed?

You will often be told in the course of your studies that you should be using scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, but how do you know that the journal you are using is?

A publication is considered to be scholarly if:

1. It is authored by academics for a target audience that is mainly academic
2. The printed format isn’t usually a glossy magazine
3. It is published by a recognised society with academic goals and missions

Most quality scholarly journals are peer-reviewed. This means that a second opinion by experts in the field is sought before an article is accepted for publication. Changes are often made in response to critical comments from reviewers.

There is a useful guide from the University of Maryland University College that explains about the different types of journals available.

You may also find Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory available from the Online Library a very useful tool for checking whether a journal is peer-reviewed. This will enable you to search for a journal title and find out whether it has been defined as a peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal. This is easy to do - see this FAQ for more details of how to do this.