Re: Refereed vs. Academic Scholarly Steve Black 28 Jan 2002 18:26 UTC
Nancy, My understanding is that the data in the Serials Directory is self-reported by the editors and publishers of the journals. The data is only as good as the information provided. I interpret "peer-reviewed" and "refereed" as synonymous, but that doesn't mean every editor and publisher considers them to be the same. However, a journal can be scholarly without being peer-reviewed. The example you use, Adolescence, "relies for its contents mainly on solicited material". The front matter does ask for duplicate copies to be submitted, but is silent on whether the articles go through peer review. But the articles are certainly what I would call scholarly. For library instruction purposes, what I find difficult to explain are scholarly journals that do not have works cited. As a general rule of thumb, one can tell patrons that scholarly articles have works cited. But there are exceptions. For example, Foreign Affairs is scholarly, but the well-informed opinion pieces that make up most of the journal don't have works cited. It is listed in the peer-reviewed index in the Serials Directory, though. So, there are ambiguities (welcome to serials librarianship!), and the data in EBSCO and Ulrich won't be 100% accurate, because it is self-reported by the publishers. Steve Black Reference, Instruction, and Serials Librarian Neil Hellman Library The College of Saint Rose 392 Western Ave. Albany, NY 12203 (518) 458-5494 blacks@mail.strose.edu -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU]On Behalf Of Nancy Crow Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 11:00 AM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Refereed vs. Academic Scholarly We are having an ongoing discussion on what is peer-reviewed and what is scholarly publications. Is there any definitive definitions of types of serials. Ulrich's (page x of the 2000 38th ed.) seems to indicate that refereed and peer reviewed are one and the same. Also, it says that "Omission of title from the index" in vol. 5 of Ulrich's "does not mean that the journal is not peer-reviewed." Some titles, such as Adolescence, are listed as scholar/academic publication in the title listing in Ulrich's, but are not listed in the Refereed Section of Ulrich's vol. 5. Searching of EBSCOHost databases can be limited to peer-reviewed journals, but these sometime vary from Ulrich's. This is confusing to a fairly new serials librarian. Please help. Nancy Crow, Assistant Librarian Serials/Interlibrary Loan Quincy University 1800 College Ave. Quincy, IL 62301-2699 crowna@quincy.edu