Library and Academic Services: Peer Review: Identifying Peer-reviewed Journals (2024)

Canadian Nurse

1. From the masthead and examination of the physical journal

• the masthead states:

"Peer-reviewed feature articles appearing in this publication have undergone a double-blind peer-review process"

What I read from this is that not all articles in this journalare peer-reviewed - only the featured ones (andpossiblynot even all featured articles). In this issue,there are only two featuredarticles - the rest are regular departments such as feedback, perspectives, reflection, etc.. There is no indication in the journal if the two featured articles published were reviewed or not.

• Furtherexploration of the journal revealsthat many of theauthors are "communications consultants", 'freelance journalists", etc. or not listed at all (likely staff writers) - we know that peer-reviewed articles are written by experts in the field, so these articles aren't likely tobe peer-reviewed.
• The content is nothighly academic, the article format is not structured(abstract, methodology, etc.), the content is geared to the practitioner and there is lots of advertising including alist of advertisers at the end of the issue.

2. On the webpage:canadian-nurse.com(the journal's webpage) they state that effective 2019:

"Canadian Nurse is not an academic journal.", and

"Please note that we are no longer accepting original research papers for peer review."

Given all this, I would be very cautious using an article from this publication if I needed a peer-reviewed article for my research. This is more a trade publication than a scholarly one.It would appear that there are some articles from earlier issues that were peer-reviewed but it might be challenging to figure out which are and aren't.

NOTE: all Canadian Nurse articles (featured and otherwise) currently show up as "peer-reviewed" in databases. (effective 2019/10/09)

Canadian Journal of Infection Control (CJIC)

1. From the masthead and examination of the physical journal:

• No outward statement or indication in the masthead, table of contents or articles themselves that they are peer-reviewed.
• A self-advertisem*ntnear the back of the issuestates that the CJIC is "a leading international peer-reviewed journal providing a platform for knowledge transfer and academic discourse in the field..." the statement refers authors to refer to the website for further guidance.
• The physical journal itself is an interesting hybrid as half its pages are colourful, glossy advertisem*nts aimed at professionals in the field; there is a page listing all advertisers. These do occur only at the beginning and the end of the journal and are not scattered throughout the actual articles.
• The articles themselves are written by experts and are scholarly in format (ex. abstracts, methods, results, etc.)

2. From the IPAC webpage

The same statement as above;that theCJICis "a leading internationalpeer-reviewedjournal providing aplatform for knowledge transfer and academic discourse in the field..."

Clicking on the CJIC Guidelines for Authors we find the following statement:

"Articles of original research accepted for publication in CJIC will appear in one of the following categories, all of which (except Letters to the Editor and Errata) undergo the same peer review" the guidelines provide instruction for submission to a double-blind review.

From the webpage I feel confident that any articles I use from this journal are peer-reviewed (excepting letters and errata); despite the amount of advertising in the physical journal.

Drug Development & Delivery

1. From the masthead and examination of the physical journal:

• No outward statement or indication in the masthead, table of contents or articles themselves that they are peer-reviewed.
• lots of embedded advertising - sometimes difficult to separate the advertising from the articles
• articles are unstructured; some have limited (3-4) references

2. From the drug-dev.com website

• Clicking on the Submission guidelineswe find nothing to suggest that articles in this publication go through a review beyond the editor.

Given the lack of statements in either location, I would not use articles from this journal if I needed peer-reviewed sources. This is a clear example of a trade journal.

Lab Medicine

1. From the masthead and examination of the physical journal:

• No outward statement or indication in the masthead, but a self-advertisem*nt about the website states:

"Lab Medicine moves to double-blind review -- "...Although peer reviews of manuscripts submitted to Laboratory Medicine have always been single-blind - we are proud to announce that peer reviews for this journal are now double-blind..."

from this statement, we can extrapolate that Lab Medicine peer-reviews their articles.

• limited advertising - mostly self, or related associations
• articles are structured with lots of references

2. From the labmedicine.comwebsite

"About the journal:Lab Medicine is a double-blind, peer-reviewed biomedical journal"

This statementis probably enough to decide that this is a trusted journal. Clicking on Author Guidelines we can also see the peer-review process:

"All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by one of the Editors. At this stage manuscripts may be rejected without peer review if it is felt that they are not of high enough priority or not relevant to the journal. This fast rejection process means that authors are given a quick decision and do not need to wait for the review process.

Manuscripts that are not instantly rejected are sent out for double-blind peer review, usually to two independent reviewers. (See instructions below about proper preparation of the manuscript for double-blind peer review.) Based on the feedback from these reviewers and the Editors' judgment a decision is given on the manuscript.

If a paper is not acceptable in its present form, we will pass on suggestions for revisions to the author."

Journal of GerontologicalNursing

1. From the masthead and examination of the physical journal:

• No outward statement or indication in the masthead, table of contents or articles themselves that they are peer-reviewed.
• limited advertising - mostly self, or related associations
• articles are structured with lots of references

2. From the JGNwebsite

"The Journal of Gerontological Nursing is a monthly, peer-reviewed journal publishing clinically relevant original articles on the practice of gerontological nursing across the continuum of care in a variety of health care settings, for more than 40 years."

This statementis probably enough to decide that this is a trusted journal. Clicking onInformation for Authorswe can also see a detailed peer-review process stating:

"All manuscripts undergo pre-publication double-blind peer review by the Editorial Board and reviewers..." the statement lists exactly what reviews are looking for. Further down the page statements about Letters to the editor will be published at the discretion of the editor (i.e. they won't go through review)