If you need to find out more about a specific journal...
- Is it peer reviewed?
- What’s their editorial policy?
- What are their submission policies?
- What is the scope and focus of the journal?
- Ulrich's or the publisher's website are two good places to start:
Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory is a library database that provides bibliographic, access, and pricing information for newspapers, magazines, and journals published in the United States and internationally. It also distinguishes peer reviewed or refereed journals (refereed is just another word for “peer review”) from popular magazines.
Search for the title of a journal. Select the correct journal because you may see multiple versions with the same title. This is often the case when online and print versions exist, or the journal has changed publishers.
When you click on the journal title, check the description and make sure it relates to what your journal article is about. If you need to know whether the journal is peer reviewed or not, look for the term "refereed", which indicates the journal is peer reviewed.
It may also be helpful to go directly to the publisher’s website for a particular journal to get information about editorial and submission policies. Simply Googling the name of the journal will often help you find the publisher’s website, but the website is also provided in Ulrich’s profile for a journal as seen in the screenshot above. It may be difficult to find submission information and editorial policies on the homepage for the journal. There is no standard for where this information is located from website to website. Look for About, Contact, Instructions to Authors, Author Guidelines, or Contribute links.