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Libraries and Learning Skills

Medieval Studies

This is a guide to locating and using resources on the Middle Ages. It has been written for the MA Medieval Studies. If you are studying the Middle Ages in undergraduate modules, you may also find some of this material helpful.

Why are journals important?

Academic journals are scholarly periodicals (i.e. publications which come out on a regular schedule) which contain articles on specific subjects.

Journal articles are important in academic research for a number of reasons:

  • they are an important forum by which medieval studies research is made available to other scholars and members of the public
  • they explore a topic or problem in medieval studies in depth,
  • they contain current or recent research findings,
  • they go through a process called peer-review, which means that arguments and conclusions have been critiqued by other subject experts.

In general, stick with peer-reviewed material for your medieval studies assignments because this enables you to engage with the most up-to-date and best quality scholarship

Library Website - journals

Image of the Library search box

Use the Library website to search across multiple databases:

Choose from the different search options:

Find books and articles - search by keywords to find books, some eBooks and journal articles across multiple electronic databases.

Advanced search - this is the recommended Library search option to use when searching for journal articles as it provides more options to build your search and refine your search results.  Search by keywords to find books, some eBooks, journal articles and other sources across multiple electronic databases. 

You may also want to search some of the databases individually.  These can provide different search options and not all of the database content is available through the Library website search.

Electronic Journals

The Electronic journals search (located under the Find tab on the main library website) is one option for searching the library's collection of journals. If you are looking for a journal about a particular topic or have found a likely looking article in a bibliography and want to check if we have access, this is often the best place to go.

The following journals are particularly recommended for Medieval Studies. 

Browzine

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.

BrowZine Search Box

Search e-journals

Inter-library loans

Inter-library loans are requests for items not held in our collections to be obtained via other libraries. The inter library loan service is open to staff, postgraduate researchers, postgraduate taught students, and final year undergraduate dissertation students.  For more details and to make requests go to the Library's Inter-library loans page.

Subjects: Medieval Studies