When looking for academic journal articles you can use the 'everything' search in Library Search or search directly in the databases below, which we’ve selected as being most relevant to your subject area.
Databases are the best place to find academic journal articles as they offer advanced search tools, metric data, and export options for referencing. These databases also often provide access to information types such as conference papers, book chapters, review articles, trade magazines, and more. BrowZine can also be used to explore e-journal titles in your subject.
While most of our collection is now available digitally, some titles may only be accessible in print. You can find these journal titles using an ‘everything except articles’ search in Library Search.
You’ll also find links to essential reading for your programme in your module reading lists on Canvas.
Key Databases and E-journal Collections
Databases will either provide you with the full text of the journal or they will give you the bibliographic details of an article. Where full text is not available, look for the
link and follow this to see if we have the full text available via Library Search.
Subject databases
Subject databases are tailored to particular subject areas. They tend to use precise terminology relating to the subject area, making searches more accurate, and can include subject specific tools and features.
- CAB Abstracts This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive database covering research and development literature in Agriculture, Forestry, aspects of human health, human nutrition, animal health and the management and conservation of natural resources from 1910 to date.
- Ecology Abstracts This link opens in a new window
An index to Ecology research journal articles, covering interactions of all organisms to their environment and each other. Includes topics from habits and food chains to erosion, pollution and land reclamation as well as relevant papers on evolutionary biology, economics, and systems analysis, as they relate to ecosystems or the environment, and detailed information on resource and ecosystems management and modelling.
- ENDS Report This link opens in a new window
An online news source covering key environmental topics. It offers commentary and analysis on environmental policy and legislation, exploring the implications for business across the carbon, environmental and sustainability agenda.
- Greenfile This link opens in a new window
A research database covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Collects scholarly, government and general-interest titles including content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.
- Lyell Collection This link opens in a new window
One of the largest integrated collections of online Earth Science literature available.
- Policy Commons: Global Think TanksGlobal Think Tanks is a collection of objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, think tanks, IGOs and NGOs. It provides in-depth search and access to some 5 million reports from over 25,000 organisations.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature
A collection focussing on travel and exploration during the nineteenth century, offering insight into the age of cartography and the rise of leisure travel. Features historical atlases, gazetteers, European and non-European travel narratives, and a variety of maps created during colonial exploration and expansion.
- Royal Geographical Society Digital Archive (with IBG)
The history of geography throughout the British Empire is represented in this collection of digitized archives from the Royal Geographical Society. Content spans from 1478 to 1953 and includes a range of primary sources, searchable manuscripts, correspondence, reports, conference papers, proceedings, maps, charts, atlases, photographs, surveys, data and ephemera. Materials explore topics such as environmental history, exploration, colonization and decolonization, anthropology, law, climate science, gender studies and cartography.
- Sustainable Development Goals Online
A curated library of digital content from Taylor and Francis supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including relevant book chapters and journal articles covering all 17 SDGs.
- Wiley Digital Archives: Environmental science and history.Explores critical aspects of anthropogenic change, with unique and rare archival collections from multiple, global sources, including collections on Deforestation, Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries (Food Production); Ecology, Botany, Biodiversity, and Extinction; Water Sources, Irrigation, Wetlands, and Hydrology.
Multidisciplinary databases
Much like Library Search, multidisciplinary databases cover a wide range of topics and are a great place to scope your search, or to use if your topic covers more than one subject area.
- ProQuest Natural Science Collection This link opens in a new window
The Natural Science Collection includes the Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, the Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database and the Biological Science Database. It provides full-text titles from around the world including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
- ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides access to databases covering all areas of social sciences including international literature in politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education. Together, they provide abstracts, indexing and full text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers and more.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database which indexes scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters and conference proceedings. It provides cited reference searching, so you can navigate through the literature to uncover all the information relevant to your research. Use citation reports to see citation activity and geographical trends and the ‘analyse results’ tool to identify trends and publication patterns.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowAs a comprehensive, multidisciplinary resource, this database indexes peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, and trade publications. It supports cited reference searching to explore the literature in depth, along with tools for citation tracking, author and affiliation searches, visual analysis of results, journal analysis, and author identification for those interested in publishing.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR offers full access to scholarly journals, e-books, thematic collections, primary sources, and images (Artstor) across many subject areas.
- Oxford University Press Journals This link opens in a new window
A large collection of peer-reviewed journals published by Oxford University Press for a wide variety of subject areas.
- SAGE Journals Online This link opens in a new windowSearchable database providing full-text access to many Sage titles. We have full-text access to almost all of them from 1999 onwards.
- Science Direct This link opens in a new window
A large database of peer-reviewed, full-text scientific, technical and health literature published by Elsevier.
- SAGE Research Methods CasesA collection of case studies showing the challenges and successes of doing research, written by the researchers themselves. They explain why the researchers chose the methods they did, how they overcame problems in their research and what they might have done differently with hindsight. Cases are peer-reviewed and cover a range of disciplines including social sciences, science, arts, technology and medicine.
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