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.
- SportDiscus This link opens in a new windowCovers both serial and monographic literature in the following areas of sports: recreation, exercise physiology, sports medicine, coaching, physical fitness, the psychology, history and sociology of sport, training, and conditioning. Seventy percent of the databases consists of periodical articles.
- EMBASE This link opens in a new windowIs a major biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexing over 3,500 international journals in the following fields: drug research, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, toxicology, clinical and experimental human medicine, health policy and management, public health, occupational health, environmental health, drug dependence and abuse, psychiatry, forensic medicine, and biomedical engineering/instrumentation. There is selective coverage for nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, psychology, and alternative medicine. Approximately 375,000 records are added yearly.
- Medline (OVID) This link opens in a new windowThe key database for medicine and related disciplines The database indexes articles in medical, dental and biomedical journals. Its coverage includes approximately 5600 international journals. Medline indexes articles published since 1946 and is updated monthly.
- CINAHL (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowOffering complete coverage of English-language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association, this database covers nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowCovers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines, including medicine, sociology and linguistics.
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.
- 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.
- Proquest Natural Science This link opens in a new windowThe Natural Science Collection includes key agriculture, aquatic science, biology, dentistry and nutrition databases, with many full text journals.
Databases Help
Click on the links to watch a Video on searching the Database or consult the Workbooks below:
Support and services
Explore further tools, guides and support from the Library.
