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.
- Bibliography of Asian Studies (Association for Asian Studies) This link opens in a new window
Database containing records on all subjects pertaining to East, Southeast and South Asia, published worldwide from 1971 to the present. Includes citations and the full-text of journal articles, review articles, conference proceedings and chapters in edited volumes.
- LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Fully digitised archives of 26 LGBT publications, mainly from the UK and USA. Coverage dates from 1954 to 2015 (depending on the specific publication).
- Mass Observation Online 1937-1967 This link opens in a new window
A major resource for British social history from 1937-1967, it contains material generated by the Mass Observation social research organisation, including day surveys, diaries and subject directives from 1937-1967, a wide range of themed topic collections, together with other material such as images and essays.
- Mass Observation Project 1981-2009 This link opens in a new window
A major resource for British social history from 1981 - 2009, it contains responses to the Mass Observation project's directives (questionnaires) sent out to volunteers who were asked to report on their lives and opinions. Topics covered are wide-ranging and include political and social themes of the period, plus insights into everyday life.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): Women: Transnational Networks
A collection focussing on issues at the intersection of gender and class, from the late eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early twentieth century. It covers trends, topics, and events as they relate to gender, including social reform, high and low culture, transnational networks, immigration, daily life, religion, and more. A wide array of primary source documents from Europe, the United States and other regions are included, such as serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals.
- 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.
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.
- CNKI China Academic Journals This link opens in a new window
Searchable database providing full-text access to academic journal articles in Social Sciences and Humanities subject areas from China and beyond. Our subscription covers topics: Literature, History, Philosophy (F), Economics, Politics, Law (G), Education, Social Sciences (H) and Economics/Management (J).
- 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 windowSearch journals published by Oxford University Press for a variety of subject areas.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- SAGE Research Methods VideoVideo collection made with expert researchers from leading research institutions providing tutorials, interviews, video case studies and mini-documentaries covering the entire research process.
Support and services
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