Corroba

Peer-review checker

How to tell if a source is peer-reviewed

A peer-reviewedsource has been evaluated by independent experts in its field before publication — the closest thing to a quality stamp in academic writing. Here's how to check any source in seconds, plus the manual ways to tell for yourself.

Grounded in real databases · always free

Paste a DOI, link, or title — Corroba tells you if it's a peer-reviewed article, a preprint, or just a webpage, from real database records.

What “peer-reviewed” means

Before a peer-reviewed (or “refereed”) article is published, the journal sends it to independent experts who judge its methods, originality, and rigor and can demand revisions or reject it. That vetting is why instructors ask for peer-reviewed sources. It isn't a guarantee of truth — review quality varies and papers are sometimes retracted— but it's a much stronger signal than an unreviewed webpage or preprint.

5 ways to tell if a source is peer-reviewed

  1. 1

    Check the journal's own website

    Find the journal online and look for an “About,” “Editorial process,” or “For authors” page. If it describes sending submissions to independent reviewers or referees, the journal is peer-reviewed. This is the most direct check.

  2. 2

    Look it up in a journal directory

    Ulrichsweb marks refereed (peer-reviewed) journals with a referee-jersey icon. For open-access journals, DOAJ only lists titles with a declared peer-review process — so a DOAJ listing is a strong positive signal. Corroba checks DOAJ for you automatically.

  3. 3

    Use your library database's filter

    Most academic databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, and others) have a “Scholarly / Peer-Reviewed” checkbox that limits results to reviewed articles. If you found the article through one of these with the filter on, it's peer-reviewed.

  4. 4

    Read the article itself

    Peer-reviewed articles almost always have a reference list or bibliography, a structured format (abstract, methods, results), named authors with academic affiliations, and appear in a journal rather than a magazine. Caveat: not every item in a peer-reviewed journal is reviewed — editorials, letters, and book reviews usually aren't.

  5. 5

    Paste it into a checker

    The fastest way: drop the DOI, link, or title into the checker above. Corroba resolves it to the real database record and tells you whether it's a peer-reviewed article, a preprint that hasn't been reviewed yet, or just a webpage — plus whether the journal is indexed in DOAJ and whether the paper has been retracted.

“Is Xpeer-reviewed?” — quick answers

Some of the most-searched cases are things that aren't journals at all:

Is Google Scholar peer-reviewed?
No — Google Scholar is a search engine, not a publisher. It indexes both peer-reviewed articles and non-reviewed material (preprints, theses, reports, slides). Judge each result individually.
Is ScienceDirect peer-reviewed?
ScienceDirect is Elsevier's hosting platform, not a journal. Most journals on it are peer-reviewed, but check the specific journal the article appears in.
Is Wikipedia (or Britannica) peer-reviewed?
No. Encyclopedias are tertiary sources — edited, but not peer-reviewed. They're fine for background reading, not as a scholarly citation.
Is Psychology Today peer-reviewed?
No — it's a consumer magazine, not a peer-reviewed journal. Trace its claims back to the original studies and cite those.
Is a preprint (arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN) peer-reviewed?
No — a preprint is posted publicly before review. It can be excellent work, but it hasn't been vetted yet, so cite it with that caveat (and check whether a peer-reviewed version now exists).

Checking a specific journal by name? See our “Is [journal] peer-reviewed?” pages →

Questions

How do I know if an article is peer-reviewed?
Check the journal's website for a described review process, look it up in Ulrichsweb or DOAJ, use your library database's peer-reviewed filter, or paste the DOI/title into Corroba — it resolves the real record and tells you whether it's peer-reviewed, a preprint, or a webpage.
Are all articles in a peer-reviewed journal peer-reviewed?
No. Even in a peer-reviewed journal, editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, and news items usually aren't sent out for review. Look at what type of item it is, not just where it's published.
Is a peer-reviewed source always reliable?
Peer review is a strong signal that work has been vetted, but it isn't a guarantee — flawed papers get through, and some are later retracted. Corroba also checks each source against the Retraction Watch record so you don't cite a withdrawn study.
Is the peer-review checker free?
Yes — check as many sources as you like, free, with no sign-up and no ads.

Checking a whole reference list, not one source? Run it all through Corroba Verify →