Find journal articles

A journal is a magazine that focuses on a particular discipline or subject matter. Journals are sometimes referred to as magazines, periodicals, or serials. Journals:

• concern a particular discipline or subject area
• are published regularly (weekly, monthly, quarterly)
• contain articles, book reviews and editorial content.

There are many types of journals, including:

• peer-reviewed
• scholarly and academic journals
• trade journals
• professional journal
• current affairs journals.

Information found in journals is:

• authoritative and often peer-reviewed
• current
• digestible (with an easily understandable structure: Abstract, introduction, methodology, discussion and conclusion)
• provides information on a specific topic
• answers a specific question (presents findings).

Journal articles are not suitable for all occasions. Journals articles generally do not provide:

• an introduction to a subject area
• a broad overview of a particular topic.

If you have the journal article citation, to get the full text of the article check in Library Search first.

For example, to find this citation - 

Serry, T. A., & Oberklaid, F. (2015). Children with reading problems: Missed opportunities to make a difference. Australian Journal of Education, 59(1), 22-34. 

1. Go to Library Search
2. Enter the article title - "Children with reading problems: Missed opportunities to make a difference"  
3. Verify that the result is the correct Journal, author, year, volume, page number etc
4. Click on the title to access or locate the article

Search Library Search for the journal title to find out:

• Whether the library holds the journal
• If it is published online or in print
• Which database holds the journal
• Which volumes/years are held.

To search for journal titles:

1. Go to Library Search on the Library homepage
2. Select Journals from the drop down options
3. enter the journal title, for example - Australian Journal of Education

If you only have partial information on the journal article, search Google Scholar for the full citation. Once you have the journal citation you can go back to Library Search to look up the journal title.

Find the full text of a particular journal article (YouTube, 2m56s)

If you still can't locate your journal article, place a document delivery request and we will try to get it for you.

Library Search is a good place to start as it searches across many databases.

Searching further on your topic:

• Subject guides - our librarians have selected the most relevant databases in your subject area
• Database Search - browse key databases by subject category
• Google Scholar (use you UQ log in to enter Google Scholar for greater access to full-text material).

Get more tips on searching in databases.