Issues to consider:
Who is publishing the journal and how long has it been around?
Most journals are published by university presses or scholarly organizations, though some are edited by the scholarly organizations but published by for-profit publishers. You can find out how long a journal has been published on the journals website or using the library's database Ulrich's, but the volume number is usually the equivalent of the number of years (unless it's published weekly).
Impact Factor
Scientific and most social science journals care about their "impact factor" or a percentage of their articles that are cited by others. So you may find an "impact factor" number advertised on the journals homepage. The bigger the number, the bigger the impact.
Journal Search -- Alphabetical list of the journals, magazines and newspapers we have online in our databases, and/or we have at least a few issues in print or microfilm.
If we do not have the periodical you are looking for, you may request specific articles via Interlibrary Loan.