What is a journal?
Similar to a magazine, but on topics that are usually more scholarly, a journal contains a collection of articles written by different authors. Unlike a book, the publication of a journal is on-going, with no finish date in sight. Journals can be available in an e-format or print or both.
- Examples: Performance Research / Journal of Biochemistry / Victorian Studies
What's the difference between a magazine and a journal?
Magazine articles are usually written by journalists for a mass-market audience. Journal articles will have been written by researchers and will often have undergone a quality checking, peer-review process.
What does peer review mean?
Peer review refers to a process that certain journals use to quality check articles before accepting them for publication. The article will have been read and commented on by a panel of experts, who will have inspected the research findings for accuracy and originality. If you are reading a peer-reviewed journal, you can be sure the information is “quality assured”.
How do I find journals?
- Your lecturers will be able to recommend journals to you, and you will also see references to journals and journal articles in your reading lists.
- You can come into the library and browse through a selection of print journals that the library subscribes to.
- To browse through e-journals (which won’t be visible on the Library shelves!) you’ll need to use the Library search tools such as Library Search (Falmouth) or Library Search (Exeter).
- Falmouth students can browse through a list of journals on their Library subject pages
How do I find a journal article?
- If you know the title of the article, simply type in some keywords from it into Library Search [Falmouth] or Library Search [Exeter]
- You might need to use the filters to narrow the results to journal articles
Part 2 of the video above shows you how to use Library Search (Falmouth) to look for journal articles.