Finding quality journal articles
Learning objectives
Locate journals
Locate relevant databases
Construct a search strategy
Verify journal quality
Search some popular databases for journal articles
What is a journal?
A journal, periodical or serial is a publication which is produced on a continuing basis, for example
weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually. Some journals are published irregularly. Journals can be in print
or electronic format or in some cases they are published in both formats.
Journals contain articles written by experts in a particular field of study, based on research that the
author, or authors have undertaken. A peer reviewed or scholarly journal publishes articles which have
been independently evaluated by experts in the field.
Locating Journals
To find journal articles that are in reference lists and recommended readings you can use the UNE
Library Catalogue or the Journal articles page. Most journals are held electronically but some print
copies are held in the library. Call numbers begin with a P eg P505/S4166. The prefix P stands for
journal, periodical or serial.
Recognising a journal citation
Bert Cardullo, ‘The man who would be hated: An interview with John Simon’, Journal of dramatic
theory and criticism, 2009, 24, pp. 23-41. (Footnoting style used in History)
Mori, Y. 2002, ‘Optimal diving behaviour for foraging in relation to body size’, Journal of Evolutionary
Biology, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 270–276. (Author-date style)
LeDoux, J. (1995). Emotion: Clues from the brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 46(1), 209-235.
doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.46.020195.001233 (APA style)
Catalogue search – Journal Title
Enter the title of the journal (not the title of the article) into the search. Drop the article (a, an, the) at
the beginning of a title and change ‘Title’ to ‘Journal Title’.
The first entry is a print holding of this journal. To find out what volumes are held and where it is
located in the Library click on the title.
To find out what is available online go to the 2nd entry and click on the date. Enter your UNE username
and password.
What is a database?
A database is an online catalogue or index of published items. A database that consists of a collection
of journals allows you to search across hundreds of different journals at once. Databases are searchable
by a variety of access points including keyword, title, author etc.
Databases may contain citations, abstracts and very often the full text of the article. The abstract is a
summary of the article. Full text databases allow you to read, download or print the entire article at your
desktop.
Some databases are multidisciplinary eg ProQuest, Gale, Informit and cover many subject areas while
others are subject specific eg BioOne (bioscience research journals), LexisNexis (Legal). Not all of our
journals are part of a database. Some are subscribed to individually and can be located in the library
catalogue by title.
Locating Databases
There are a number of ways to locate databases from the Library home page:
1. Go to FIND > Databases. This lists the most popular databases.
2. Quick find databases > By subject. Go to ‘Journals and Databases’ on the Subject Guide.
3. Quick find databases > By A-Z list. The full list of all UNE-subscribed databases.
Constructing a search strategy
Begin searching by breaking down your question into its key parts or concepts. These main concepts
create the list of keywords. Keywords are the individual terms which you use on their own or in
combination to search for information on your search topic.
Question: Discuss global warming and the impact it is having on society. For each concept, make a
list of alternative terms or synonyms.
Concept 1
global warming
climate change
greenhouse effect
Concept 2
impact*
social impact*
societ*
Words that are synonyms or alternative terms about the same concept can be joined using the Boolean
operator OR. This increases your search results. To join words from different concepts use the
Boolean operator AND. Using AND refines your search and reduces the number of hits.
Truncation* allows you to search for words with varying endings – impact/impacts
The following are possible search strategies:
Global warming OR climate change AND impact*
Global warming OR climate change AND social impact*
Global warming OR climate change AND (social impact OR societ*)
JSTOR
JSTOR is an archival database however more recent content is available through linking.
Best suited to History, English literature subject areas compared to Science topics, however coverage is
multidisciplinary.
From your list of results you can save, email or print items and export to EndNote.
MYJStor allows you to customize your searching and has Alerts which will notify you of recently
published articles on your topic.
Most of the databases allow you to customize your searching. You can create email alerts which notify
you when an article is being cited and when an article on your topic has been published.
Informit
Informit is a suite of Australian databases. Some contain full-text while others are only citation
databases. This database is multidisciplinary covering subjects including engineering, science, health,
indigenous issues and public affairs. To search Select appropriate databases: eg for an education
topic – A+ Education and APA-FT. Descriptions are provided beside names of databases.
The following advanced search will retrieve information on gender differences in literacy learning in
Australian schools since 2005.
gender (in Abstract) AND literac* (in Abstract)
Date range 2005-2010
Full text only
Search in
abstract to
limit results
Informit Advanced
Search, limited to fulltext and published after
2005
Managing results
Manage Search History is a useful tool to combine search terms.
Mark selected records by ticking beside them. Tick selected records to Print or Email.
To export to EndNote, Save the selected records. Select fields - Endnote Direct. Then Save Records to
‘Open with’ Endnote.
Informit has an Index which is useful to locate articles by a particular Author.
Informit Thesaurus is also useful for finding related terms.
Verifying journal quality
Ulrichsweb, available from the A-Z list of databases, is the authoritative source of bibliographic and
publisher information of more than 300,000 periodicals. Check to see if your journal is peer reviewed.
Enter the title of the journal and click on green magnifying glass.
Click on green magnifying
glass to start the search
which indicates the journal is refereed - a scholarly, peer reviewed, authoritative journal.
Ulrichsweb also tells you which database indexes which journal.
Note the symbol
For more information on journal quality:
See Identifying Academic journals
http://www.une.edu.au.ezproxy.une.edu.au/library/resources/peerreview.pdf
See eSKILLS Plus
http://www.une.edu.au/library/find/eskillsplus/literature/journal.php
Some other sources of journal articles
Summon from the Library page – searches across multiple full text databases and the Library
catalogue. Summon allows you to search by journal article title.
Eg Hunter, J.M.L. (2007). Climate change and moving species: Furthering the debate on assisted
colonization. Conservation Biology, 21(5), 1356-1358.
Search using the following: “Climate change and moving species”
Google Scholar
Use GOOGLE SCHOLAR to find scholarly articles. To get access to the articles that UNE Library
subscribes to, begin your search at the UNE Library home page. To access these articles, simply enter
your search, and then click on Fulltext@UNE icon.
Access Google Scholar from the Library page so you connect directly to UNE held titles.
Authormapper (http://www.authormapper.com/)
AuthorMapper searches journal articles and plots the location of the authors on a map. Articles are only
taken from the SpringerLink database.
You will find Authormapper on most of the Subject Guides under Web Sites.
Journal articles not held at UNE
All postgraduate students can request InterLibrary Loans free of charge (up to a limit). The library will
send these articles to your UNE email account and in the case of books you can pick them up at the
Service Desk in the Library or they will be posted to you if you are a distance student.
Place your request via the online forms found on most Library pages.
See Library services for students http://www.une.edu.au/library/services-for/students.php and specific
services for postgraduates http://www.une.edu.au/library/services-for/postgraduate.php
Help
Talk to a librarian
Ask a Librarian - email service
eSKILLS UNE & eSKILLS Plus - online Library tutorials
Service Desk in Dixson Library - 6773 2458