Women's Studies Journals

In honor of Women's History Month, here's a list of women's studies journals the Dick Smith Library provides online access to:

Cover of vol. 37 issue 3 of Frontiers. 

Australian Feminist Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes interdisciplinary articles relevant to feminist and women's studies.

Black Women, Gender + Families - a peer-reviewed journal that published articles on the study of black women within the fields of history, social sciences, and the humanities. It ceased publication in 2012.

The European Journal of Women's Studies - a peer reviewed journal that publishes research in the field of gender studies in the European context.

Feminist Formations - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes interdisciplinary articles in the areas of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies. Before 2010, this publication was titled NWSA Journal.  

Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies -  a peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal that publishes articles on women's history, cultural theory, literature, art, etc.

Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles of feminist scholarship on religion.

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles in the fields of social science and humanities relevant to Middle East gender, sexuality and women's studies.

Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research in Jewish women's and gender studies. 

NORA: Nordic Journal of Women's Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes feminist and gender research located in or relevant to Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden).

Signs - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles relevant to feminist scholarship.

Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on women's literature and feminist criticism across time periods, places, and genres.

Cover of vol. 41 issue 1 of Signs.

Women in German Yearbook - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on feminist approaches to German literature, language, and culture.

Women's History Review - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles in the field of women's history.

Women's Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes scholarship about women in the fields of literature, history, art, sociology, law, political science, economics, anthropology, and the sciences.

Women's Studies in Communication - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on gender and communication.

Women's Studies International Forum - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes interdisciplinary feminist research. Before 1982, this publication was titled Women's Studies International Quarterly.

Women's Studies Quarterly - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on contemporary developments in feminist theory and scholarship.

To find more resources in this area check out our Women's Studies Subject Guide.

What is peer review?

Have your professors ever asked you to look for "peer-reviewed" articles to use for your paper? Perhaps you nodded thoughtfully and took notes, all the while wondering, "What the heck is peer review?!"

What Is It?
First, you should know that an academic journal is a periodical (newspaper, journal, or magazine) with articles written by academics or scholars on a specialized topic.

Second, although most periodicals have an editing and review process, academic journals with peer review take this a step further.  Published articles must pass a rigorous review by the scholar's peers, who are experts on a given topic.  Peer reviewers often use criterion such as research methodology, relevance to the field, the author's credentials, and more. 

Academic/scholarly vs. peer-reviewed journals
The phrases academic journal, scholarly journal and peer-reviewed journal are often  used interchangeably*.  However, not all academic journals use peer review. 

How to check your article for peer review
If you click Peer-reviewed when searching any of our databases, the articles in your results should fall into this category. 

To double-check that your article is peer-reviewed, enter the EXACT title (with quotation marks around it) into Ulrich's database (click Databases: A-Z on our homepage to find it).  If it is peer-reviewed (also known as "refereed") you will see a black and white referee shirt icon like the one in the picture.

Note: multiple search results for the same title often occur for different formats, such as print, online, and microform.  For a more detailed search, use the Advanced Search feature.

A "referee shirt" icon indicates that a periodical is peer-refereed (or reviewed).

*Some academic or scholarly journals can also be "open-access," which means that you do not have to be subscribed to a database to read them. Here is an example.