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.
Below is a list of key eJournal databases and collections covering your subject area.
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.
We recommend you search our specialised law databases independently and follow-up your bibliographic results with Library Search.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowHeinOnline provides the largest collection of image-based law and law-related materials. It provides access to the English Reports, the reprinted collection of the Nominate Reports, dating from 1220-1867. Their Law Journal Library contains over 1,200 law journals.
- Lexis+ UKThis new interface heralds a "new era in legal intelligence". Lexis+ UK is primarily a legal database providing full-text access to case law, journal articles, legislation and commentary from a range of courts and jurisdictions, with unique access to Halsbury’s Laws of England and the All England Law Reports. Content includes the UK, Europe and the USA with additional international content covering the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand).
- Westlaw UK (including Westlaw Edge UK) This link opens in a new windowWestlaw UK is one of the leading online legal information services combining up-to-date legal information from the UK, Europe and the United States. It covers cases, legislation, European Union and journals. We also have access to Thomson Reuters Westlaw (Westlaw International), which covers international materials and an extensive collection of law journals.
Are you looking for a journal article listed on a handout or reading list? Have you found the perfect journal article indexed on Westlaw or Lexis+ UK but not the full-text? Library Search gives information on the journals and eJournals the University Library has subscribed to. However, due to some limitations with legal database indexing, we advise you start your search with the journal title and NOT the article title.
For example:
Imagine that you need to locate an article published in the MLR:
Richard Mullender, 'Negligence, Public Bodies and Ruthlessness' (2009) 71 MLR 961
What does MLR stand for? Use the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations to find out the full title of the journal.
Search for the 'Modern Law Review' (i.e. the journal title) on Library Search.
The result will show the following:
- North East Law ReviewThe Law Review was established in 2013 by a student editorial board from Newcastle University. The Law Review aims to provide a platform for students writers to display their excellent work to the legal community.
All databases should have a help section with tips and tricks on how to get the best out of using them, so do make yourself familiar with them. You also may find the following helpful:
- HeinOnline (Law Journal Library) SupportHelp using the Law Journal Library.
- JSTOR supportHelp and support on how to search on JSTOR
- ProQuest supportHelpful video tutorials
- Scopus supportHelp and support on how to access and use Scopus.
- Web of Science helpVideo tutorials and guides.
- Westlaw (Journals) SupportHelp finding journals and articles.
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 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.
- Science Direct This link opens in a new windowScienceDirect provides full text-access to journal articles published by Elsevier.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowScopus is a large, multidisciplinary database, which indexes peer reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and trade publications. It provides 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. Other useful tools include citation overviews, author and affiliation searching, visual analysis of search results and a journal analyser and author identifier tools (if you are interested in publishing work).
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowWeb of Science is a multidisciplinary database, which indexes scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters and conference proceedings. It provides cited reference searching, so you can navigate forward and backward 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.
Support and services
Explore further tools, guides and support from the Library.
