RE: How many (peer reveiwed) journals are there?

["B.G. Sloan" <bgsloan2@yahoo.com>]

Sally Morris said:

"I see from Ulrich's site 
(http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/faqs.asp) that the 
'Refereed' information from publishers is in fact supplemented by 
Ulrich's editors' own research, though this still leaves open the 
question of what exactly is meant by 'refereed', since as other 
have pointed out it can mean different things for different 
disciplines and indeed journals."

I once turned down a "best paper" award because a publication was 
mislabeled as "refereed" in Ulrich's. (The organization 
sponsoring the award gave extra points points for papers that 
appeared in refereed journals).

When the people gave me advance notice of the award I asked them 
how they ranked the papers. They read off a long list of factors, 
one of which gave extra points for a refereed publication. I 
informed them that the journal the paper was published in was not 
refereed. They said "But Ulrich's says it's refereed." I turned 
down my award because I felt the review process was unfair to 
others who had actually published in refereed publications.

Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates
Bloomington, IN