Psychology

Journals are regular scholarly publications which contain articles on specific subjects.

They are important in academia for a number of reasons:

• they are the main forum by which research is published,

• they can explore a narrow topic in depth,

• they contain current or recent research findings,

• they are often peer-reviewed so that research findings are checked by other subject experts.

How to find journal articles

There are two ways of finding relevant articles for your academic research:

Using databases
Search the relevant academic databases the Library subscribes to. The advantage of using academic databases rather than Google or Google Scholar is that you can be certain that the articles you are finding are of a sufficient, academic quality and are from a reliable source. It will also link through to the full-text of the article. See the Databases section for a listing of the most useful databases for Psychology students.

Using the Find books and articles search on the library website
The default 'Find books and articles' search on the homepage of the library website will search most of the library databases simultaneously. It is best to select the 'Advanced search' option as this will enable you to build a more structured search based on the keywords relating to your research area.

The Electronic journals search allows you to search the library's collection of e-journals. Use this search if you want to see if we have access to a particular journal electronically by searching for the title of the journal (not the article).

BrowZine is another way to search the library's journal collections. If you prefer getting information in a visual format, you may want to start here.

You can create a bookshelf of your favourite journal titles and also a collection of your most useful articles. You can search by journal title or use the subject headings to browse by subject.