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.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
An extensive reference guide to the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th Century to the present. Index includes academic journals, books, conference papers, magazines, and more.
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. The database indexes journals from 1910 to present and also includes citations and links to dissertations, and book and media reviews.
- Bibliography of British and Irish History This link opens in a new window
A guide to what has been published in British and Irish history over the past 125 years. The bibliography contains records of books, edited collections, journal articles and book chapters covering the history of the British Isles, the former empire and Commonwealth, the British world, and Britons' activities on the global stage from 55BC to the present. Links to full text articles are provided where available.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Arts and Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Part of the multidisciplinary Web of Science Core Collection database, the Arts & Humanities Citation Index provides coverage from 1975 to present, of articles from leading journals in a broad range of arts and humanities disciplines. Includes useful tools such as cited reference searching, so you can navigate forward and backward through the literature to uncover all the information relevant to your research and set up citation alerts; and author searching so you can quickly find experts in your field.
- ProQuest Social Sciences Premium Collection This link opens in a new windowThis collection provides access to databases covering the international literature in the social sciences, including politics, sociology, social services, anthropology, criminology and education. Together, they provide abstracts, indexing and full text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers and more. You can search across the whole collection or choose a specific database to retrieve information. Use the thesauri within the databases to identify alternative keywords.
- 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.
Support and services
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