N.B. You can verify that the journal in which an article is published is refereed/peer reviewed, but certain items in these journals are not, themselves, refereed/peer reviewed (such as letters to the editor, book reviews, and blog excerpts). Typically, only the formal articles are actually subject to the process. See #3, below, for ways of finding out for sure.
To confirm that your journal article is from a refereed/peer-reviewed publication AFTER you already have it, there are three options:
- In some journals, you will find "submitted/revised/accepted" dates on the first page of each article. These dates tell you when the article went through the various steps of the peer-review/referee process.
- Search for the journal title (NOT the article title) in UlrichsWeb. In the resulting list of records, look next to the journal title for the symbol that resembles a referee's jersey:
- Finally, the most authoritative place to look is the journal's website. Just Google the name of the journal. Look for a description of the journal that says "peer-reviewed" there. Also, look at the information for authors or review policy pages. These will often detail the peer-review process for each journal, including which sections of the journal are reviewed and which are merely edited.
Want to know more? See also: