Accuracy in the Identification of Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Journals and the Peer-Review Process Across Disciplines

The first section of this paper examines the accuracy of the two major periodical directories, Ulrich's (UL) and Serials Directory (SD), in identifying scholarly and peer-reviewed journals. There were significant discrepancies found between SD and UL. A similar difference was also found between SD and journal-provided information, while UL closely reflected journal-provided information. The second section looks at the differences and similarities in the peer-review process across 18 disciplines. Seventy-four percent of the journals used editors and outside experts as reviewers. Single-blind peer review was used by 37% of the journals, 58% employed double-blind, and 5% made use of open reviews.