Studying Effectively
Student looking through journals at James Cameron-Gifford Library

Journals

Journals, sometimes called periodicals or serials, are an essential source of original research.

Go to: What is a journal  |  Structure  |  Searching for journal articles  |  Support with finding journal titles and articles

What is a journal?

Available in print or digital format, journals share current research through short, detailed articles and usually focus on a specific topic e.g. Information, Communication & Society

As publication of a journal is much faster than a book, they are a great source of the most up-to-date research.

Many journals are peer-reviewed, which means each article is checked by experts on the topic before being published.

 

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Structure of a journal

Whatever the subject of the journal, you will find they are all structured in a similar way.


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Searching for journal articles

You may want to search for journal articles on a topic, or you may need to find a particular journal article. There are several ways to find print and electronic journal articles.

If you come across a specific journal article that you can’t access either in print or electronically, you can request it through the interlibrary loans system (UK / China / Malaysia).

Reading lists

Use your online reading lists to find the location of print journal titles in our libraries and to access electronic journals recommended by your lecturer. 

Reading Lists - UK / China / Malaysia

Help using reading lists

NUsearch

NUsearch is your one-stop shop for searching our library collections. Open NUsearch and select 'Journals' to browse or search for print and electronic journal titles.

NUsearch - UK / China / Malaysia

Help using NUsearch

BrowZine

Use BrowZine (UK and Malaysia only) to find, read and monitor major academic journals and to keep up to date in your subject area. 

BrowZine - UK / Malaysia

Help using BrowZine

Subject databases

Use your subject databases from the tab on NUsearch. These are subject-based collections of published research, mainly from journals. University of Nottingham Libraries subscribes to a wide range of subject databases which often link to the full text of the electronic article.

Subject databases - UK / China / Malaysia 

Help using databases

 

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Support with finding journals

Unable to access the article you need?

If you come across a specific print journal article that we don’t have a print or electronic copy of, you can request it through the interlibrary loans system (UK / China /  Malaysia)

Guidance on finding print and electronic resources 

Library Access browser extension 

This browser extension (available in the UK) makes it much easier to access journals, databases, ebooks or other websites when working off campus. 

The extension will notify you when you’re on a website that the University has a subscription for. Follow the link to get simple access to all licensed material on that site without having to visit the Library website first.

If the material you’d like to use doesn’t seem accessible, the extension will automatically check for open access versions.

Library Access extension

 

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Continue your journey

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Further support

 

 

Studying Effectively

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