Journals (also known as serials, periodicals and magazines) are published regularly (weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually) and contain the most recent information on a subject.
Every journal is made up of several elements. Each publication year has a volume number and within every volume, there are multiple parts/issues - how many will depend on how frequently it is published. Each part/issue contains a number of individual articles.
Journal references are broken down as follows:
If the Library holds a journal in print format, the complete year's issues may subsequently be bound together within hardback covers. If not, the loose issues will be stored (in issue number order) in a pamphlet box on the Journals shelves. Most journals are now provided in electronic format.
Online journals are accessed via USearch or individual Library databases (to search for articles by keyword) or the Electronic Journals link (to search for specific journal by name).
Looking for some journal articles about your research topic? USearch is a great place to start. It searches through 80,000 full-text e-journals and a range of individual databases at the same time. You can also find a specific journal article by searching using the article title
Example search on USearch
Below is a short video example of how to use the advanced search in USearch to find articles on the topic of Communication skills in nursing, but USearch will work in the same way, no matter what the topic you want to research.
Other sources for journal articles
USearch does not cover all of our Databases. There are many others you can use in addition to USearch. You should always check more than one source when doing research so that you can compile a comprehensive list of relevant results.
Take a look at the Library Databases tab above. This will list the recommended databases for your subject.
We have many, many thousands of electronic journals in our online collections. If you already have a journal reference or want to know whether we take a particular journal and which source supplies it, you should use the Electronic Journals Finder link and search by the name of the journal.
Take a look a the short video below. Although the topic illustrated may not be relevant to your exact programme of study, the search principles are exactly the same.
Print Journals
The Library has a small print collection of journals which cannot be borrowed but articles from them can be photocopied in accordance with Copyright law.
You can locate these print titles in the Library catalogue by searching for the journal name. A complete year's journal issues may be bound together within hardback covers. Alternatively, the individual parts/issues will be stored (in issue number order) in a pamphlet box on the Journals shelves.
Some Library databases hold back numbers of a collection of journals that do not appear in our electronic journals catalogue and these are listed below along with some online sources for journal archives.
Having completed your search in USearch or one of our databases, what do you do if you can't access the article?
| 1. Do you need to complete the Athens log in? | Sign into Open Athens by Institution |
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2. Have you refined the search using full text options to ensure all results are full text? When you have selected "Full Text" or "content I can access", the article should be found in our journal holdings.
** Note: limiting to 'Full-text' will remove any results not available as full text online. You may prefer to be aware of the existence of these articles and request them via Document Delivery. If so, leave the 'Full-text' box un-ticked. |
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| 3. Click on U Find it and other links to read the full text of the article |
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4. If directed to Google Scholar or the Library Catalogue it is likely that we do not hold the full text of the article. Check to see if the Library subscribes to the Journal in Electronic Journals and if still unsuccessful, search Google Scholar. The Library catalogue will provide details of Print Journal holdings in the Library |
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Still not found the article full text? You can request any journal articles that you don't find in the library holdings through Document Delivery. |
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Google's Scholar search finds journal articles or other high quality information. It limits results to academic-related sources, such as peer reviewed journals, research based working papers, books and other scholarly resources.
However... unlike Library databases, it has limited search options, restricted search size and prioritises keywords appearing first in your search strategy. We recommend that it shouldn't be your only source of information. Use in combination with appropriate Library databases.
To export any references to the Refworks database, go to the Scholar settings, choose the Bibliography Manager option and select 'Show links to import citations into' Refworks.
For more information on Google Scholar, including search tips and citation metrics see: http://scholar.google.co.uk/intl/en/scholar/about.html
If you intend to use the 'full' Google, check Settings for advanced search tips to improve the accuracy of your search. Northampton University also has a useful video - Ten Tips for Google Searching.
USearch is the Library's Discovery tool. It is not a "Database" but it allows us to search through a large number (but not all) of our subject databases at the same time, return results and provide links to the full-text, where available.
It is an excellent source for quick searches or scoping searches.
Search our Electronic Journals A-Z list for the title of the journal you need. If we have it, it will provide a link to the database (or databases) which hold it and the years covered.
