Ulrich's Periodicals Directory™ (“Ulrich’s”) is a comprehensive serials directory and the source of bibliographic and provider information in Ulrichsweb™. The Ulrich’s data collection policy is inclusive and global, covering more than 400,000 serial publications. Ulrich’s includes bibliographic information about subscription and non-subscription titles from more than 100,000 publishers of all types and sizes worldwide. In addition to bibliographic details, Ulrich’s strives to include online and indexing coverage as well as publisher contact information.

While aiming for maximum title coverage of publications that meet the definition of a serial, Ulrich's excludes: administrative publications of governmental agencies below state level that can be easily found elsewhere, most membership directories, comic books, and puzzle and game books.

Although an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is not required for a title to be included in Ulrich’s, ProQuest strongly recommends publishers apply to their regional ISSN center for this important serial identifier. For information about the ISSN network and the ISSN application process, visit http://issn.org.

Ulrich’s does not solicit, require, or accept payment or other remuneration from publishers or providers for listings in the directory.

ProQuest urges all serials publishers and providers to follow established industry standards and guidelines for identifiers, metadata, and file formatting (for example, the ISSN Standard and KBART) and publishing best practices (for example, OASPA and COPE).

Ulrich’s aims for maximum title coverage of publications that meet the definition of a serial. Academic and scholarly journals, trade publications and newsletters, consumer magazines, niche titles, and others are included. We strive to list everything that is published. Our goal is to provide as much information as possible about a title, map its changes and coverage over time, and include links to the publication’s and publisher’s websites for additional information about the title’s policies. Titles whose publishers do not provide adequate information for identification or updating may be excluded from Ulrich’s at ProQuest’s sole discretion.

Ulrich’s includes information about Open Access serial publications. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a primary source of Open Access title information in Ulrich’s. Additional sources of OA title information include the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and individual journal publishers and scholarly societies.

ProQuest is aware of the phenomenon of so-called "predatory" publications – that charge high fees to authors to publish their articles and claim to ensure peer-review, but whose practices are questionable – and the concern across the academic and scholarly community that some of these publications represent themselves as legitimate Open Access resources. Identification and screening of these and other “vanity” titles is an ongoing editorial effort that can be complicated by the fact that some have obtained abstracting and indexing coverage in commercial services. ProQuest continues to monitor these types of titles and works together with the library community to identify specific publications about which libraries may have concerns.

Librarians and researchers who have concerns about a specific serial publication are welcome to report those concerns to ProQuest. Information about how to request further research into a publication or to suggest corrections to a publication's information is available here.

Ulrichsweb provides features and tools to assist librarians, researchers, and library patrons in identifying and evaluating serials titles of interest.

• Magazines for Libraries™ (MFL) reviews – Available as a search parameter and a search filter, MFL reviews provide critical title-level assessments written by professional librarians with subject expertise. Journals, magazines, databases, indexes, and other resources are reviewed.
• Peer-Reviewed filter – Available as a search parameter and a search filter, the “Refereed” indicator identifies current titles designated in Ulrich’s as peer-reviewed. (Ulrich’s does not assign a “Not Refereed” designation.)
• Journal website URLs – Deep links to journal websites from Ulrich’s records allow users to read more about author guidelines, publication policies, acceptance criteria, and other details specific to the journal. Many sites include details about the journal’s editorial and advisory boards.
• Open Access filter – In the context of Ulrich’s, Open Access means that the publication’s content is full text that is freely available on the public internet for searching, reading, copying, downloading, and printing. Free publications that do not meet all of these criteria are excluded from the filter.
• Tables of Contents – Available for more than 26,000 journals, tables of contents provide insight into the scope and topics of articles in the publication. OpenURL links to article full-text within a library’s electronic resources can be activated in Ulrichsweb.
• Journal Citation Reports (JCR) limiter – All Ulrichsweb users can identify titles indexed in Journal Citation Reports® from Clarivate Analytics. Your Ulrichsweb administrator can activate a link to your institution’s JCR subscription to allow you to view Impact Factor numbers and graphs for individual titles.

• Date Created: 14-Nov-2017
• Last Edited Date:  3-Jan-2019