Not all academic articles are peer-reviewed, although many people use these terms interchangeably. Peer review is an editorial process used by many academic journals to ensure that the articles published in the journals are high-quality academic ones. The fastest and easiest way to identify if a journal is peer-reviewed is to search for it in Ulrichsweb, a database that provides bibliographic and editorial information on all types of serial publications (journals, newspapers, etc. However, while peer-reviewed journals require strict peer approval for publication, an academic journal that is not peer-reviewed only requires the approval of an editorial board. Although peer-reviewed journals are always academic in nature, academic journals are not always peer-reviewed.
A peer-reviewed or refereed article has undergone a process in which other academics in the author's field or discipline critically evaluate a draft of the article. Usually, the articles in these publications go through a peer review process, which means that other experts (peers) on the topic of the article evaluate the quality of the article and the research it presents, as well as the importance of the article in their field of study. Ulrichsweb is the authorized source of bibliographic and editorial information on more than 300,000 periodical publications of all kinds, including academic journals and academic.
