A peer-reviewed or refereed journal is one in which its articles have been carefully examined by one or more experts prior to their acceptance for publication. This is to ensure a high standard of quality and accuracy of the research done and of the writing itself. Articles are also screened for their appropriateness in a particular journal.

Finding Peer-Reviewed Journals

Article Databases
Several article databases allow you to limit your search to peer-reviewed titles only. These include the EBSCO databases (e.g. Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, Health Source Premier, CINAHL, etc.), and the ProQuest databases (Health & Medical Complete and Research Library Complete).

Some databases provide a list of journals and magazines they index and include a column indicating whether a title is peer-reviewed. Examples include Education Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, Applied Science and Technology, and Biological and Agricultural Index. When you find these databases in the Alphabetical List of Databases or in the Databases by Subject categories, click on more details and then List of journals indexed.

Print Source
In addition, you may want to try the following source located in the Reference Room of Shafer Library:

• Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory, 2000, contains an alphabetical list of refereed serials in volume 5 (R Z6941.U56 2000, v.5).