Library Information for International Students

A journal is a scholarly publication containing articles written by researchers, professors and other experts. Journals focus on a specific discipline or field of study. Unlike newspapers and magazines, journals are intended for an academic or technical audience, not general readers. 

Most journals are...

• peer reviewed
• have original research
• focus on current developments
• cite other works and have bibliographies
• can be in print, online or both

Journals are published on a regular basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and are sequentially numbered. Each copy is an issue; a set of issues makes a volume (usually, each year is a separate volume). Like newspapers and magazines, journals are also called periodicals or serials.
 

Two ways to search for your articles:

Library Search : directly type in your keywords to do a search

Search databases in your subject

A database is a searchable collection of information. Usually each database has its content focus on one or more subjects such as history, Linguistics, Engineering and so on.

Searching in your subject database will limit your search results to your subject area, leading to more precise searches. Especially when you need to do deep and extensive search on your topic, you want to use your subject database.