Peer Review

Welcome to our tutorial on the peer review process and how to tell if an article is peer reviewed.

A journal is peer reviewed when submitted manuscripts are read individually by experts in the relevant scientific discipline before the articles are accepted for publication. 

Reviewers examine experimental design and conclusions for each manuscript, and submit comments and/or criticisms to the journal editor. The editor then works with the author to refine and improve the manuscript.

Peer review leads to more credible and reliable sources.

Be cautious, however, as not everything in a peer reviewed journal is peer reviewed.For example, letters to the editor or book reviews are not peer reviewed. Read the abstract to make sure the article is either a research or a review article.

A research article, or primary source, reports on an original experiment or study. A review article is a literature review, or summary of articles on a certain topic. No original data or results are reported in review articles. The terminology can be confusing here. Both research articles and review articles can be published in peer reviewed journals.  

You need the journal title to determine whether an article is peer reviewed. You can find the journal title from a reference list or from the citation in a database. 

This page shows the title, which is the title of the article, and the source, which is the journal title in which the article was published. The page also shows the document type. Look at this area to make sure you’re working with a journal article. Select and copy the journal’s name. Be sure to copy and enter the journal title, not the article title. 

On the library homepage under ‘Databases and Journals’, click on the letter ‘U’. Find the listing for Ulrichsweb, a database of information about journals and other serial publications. Paste the journal name you copied, or type in a journal name. 

The journal is peer reviewed if the journal name appears with the referee t-shirt icon by it. If the icon is not present, then the journal is not peer reviewed.

Click on the journal title to see additional information about the journal

Please visit the science help desk if you have any further questions.