Get your head around journals!

How using journal articles can help you succeed in your studies!

www.kent.ac.uk/library

Information Services

Let’s start with why journals are great!

Journal articles

provide specialised information on a topic

which means they’re useful for essays, dissertations, and seminar preparation

Journal articles

are much shorter than books

and give you access to the latest thinking on a subject

Using good quality journal articles in your work

is likely to get you better marks!

So what is a journal?

So what is a journal?

A journal

tends to have content focussed around a particular subject or area of interest

and is published at regular intervals, for example weekly, monthly, or quarterly

Like these, for example

The New Law Journal is published weekly

American Mathematical Monthly speaks

for itself

And these come out quarterly, ie 4 times a year

What’s in a journal?

What’s in a journal?

Articles!

Each issue of a journal contains a number of individual articles, like chapters of a book

Articles!

Usually they cover different topics within the same subject area

Sometimes they concentrate on a particular topic, but are written by different specialists

Each article

is either based on original research or experimentation

or reviews research or books written by others

Here’s a typical table of contents of a journal issue

Except this one is a special issue where all the articles are about poison frogs

What’s the difference between print and online journals?

Online

can be accessed easily anywhere with an internet connection

Online

articles can be read online

Online

or downloaded to your own computer, mobile or tablet

Print

can be consulted in the Library (only postgrads and staff can borrow journals)

Print

articles can be photocopied or scanned

What are the elements of a journal?

We’ve already mentioned the word issue a couple of times...

We’ve already mentioned the word issue a couple of times...

article

volume

issue

journal

database?

Volume

Most journals will have a volume number that covers all the parts published in one year

Vol. 86, 2013 Vol. 87, 2014

Issue

The part of a journal that is published weekly, monthly, and so on, is called an issue and will also be numbered

Vol. 86 (3), 2013Vol. 86 (4), 2013

Pages

Page numbering often continues across all the issues published in one year,so you can see some pretty high page numbers

What does a reference to a journal article look like?

Article references

In a bibliography or reading list you may come across something like this:

Article references

Brown, Jason L., “Neotropical poison frogs: evolution’s guide to parenting, fashion and communication in a dynamic world”, Evolutionary Ecology, 27 (4), July 2013, 655–659

Article references

Brown, Jason L., “Neotropical poison frogs: evolution’s guide to parenting, fashion and communication in a dynamic world”, Evolutionary Ecology, 27 (4), July 2013, 655–659

= author

Article references

Brown, Jason L., “Neotropical poison frogs: evolution’s guide to parenting, fashion and communication in a dynamic world”, Evolutionary Ecology, 27 (4), July 2013, 655–659

= article title

Article references

Brown, Jason L., “Neotropical poison frogs: evolution’s guide to parenting, fashion and communication in a dynamic world”, Evolutionary Ecology, 27 (4), July 2013, 655–659

= journal title

Brown, Jason L., “Neotropical poison frogs: evolution’s guide to parenting, fashion and communication in a dynamic world”, Evolutionary Ecology, 27 (4), July 2013, 655–659

= volume and issue

Article references

Brown, Jason L., “Neotropical poison frogs: evolution’s guide to parenting, fashion and communication in a dynamic world”, Evolutionary Ecology, 27 (4), July 2013, 655–659

= publication date

Article references

Article references

Brown, Jason L., “Neotropical poison frogs: evolution’s guide to parenting, fashion and communication in a dynamic world”, Evolutionary Ecology, 27 (4), July 2013, 655–659

= pages

Here’s the same article when you look it up in the database Web of Science, where the components are a lot clearer

Article references

Are some journals better than others?

Academic journals

contain articles that have been written by academics for an audience of other scholars

such articles are often peer-reviewed, ie quality checked by other academics

This means you can be sure

the information in academic journals is of high quality

Is that why I shouldn’t just use Google?

Yes.

Google vs Library content

A web search may turn up the occasional good quality article that you can freely download

but most important academic journals are only available via subscription by your Library

Google vs Library content

That means the Library website and catalogue are your surest way to high quality, peer-reviewed journal articles

www.kent.ac.uk/library/resources

catalogue.kent.ac.uk

How do I find good journal articles for my assignment?

Databases

Whatever you are studying, there will be key databases of journal articles for you to search

Databases

Your Library subject guide recommends the best databases to get started

www.kent.ac.uk/library/subjects

Need help?

Just ask!

Visit the Templeman Library IT & Library Support Desk

or email library-enquiry@kent.ac.uk

The Academic Liaison Team will be happy to help if you need more specialised support

www.kent.ac.uk/library/als

Image credits

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dejeuxx/6391424067/in/photostream/

Other photos: taken in the Templeman LibraryScreenshots: from University of Kent subscribed e-resources

http://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/4312413546/flipped and editedCreative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en_GB

Let us know if this was useful!

Twitter @UKCLibraryITFacebook UKC Library and ITwww.kent.ac.uk/is/feedback