Prosthetics and Special Effects Design

What is a Journal?

A journal is a collection of articles, written by different people.  A journal will focus on a topic or subject and the articles published within it all relate to that topic.  They are published at regular intervals and can be a key source of research and academic information.

There are several different types of journal that you can access:

• Academic/scholarly journals - these include research and are often peer reviewed (other experts in the field evaluate the article before it is accepted for publication to ensure quality is maintained).

• Trade or professional magazines - aimed at people interested in or working in a particular area.  Often include articles, reviews, features and news.

What is an article?

Journals are made up of articles, these are  individual pieces of research written by an academic, professional or expert on a particular subject or topic.  They are published together with other articles by other authors in a journal.  However, they don’t go into as much detail as books.  

How do I find journal articles?
 

1) Check your Reading list!

• If your lecturer has recommended some titles they will appear in your reading list.  Click on the induvial titles from your reading list and follow the access instructions to open the record.  

• It's always a good idea to reference some journal articles from recommended sources in your assignments

2) Do a quick search on the 'Articles' tab via the Library Catalogue

• Refine your results using the Peer-reviewed Journals option from the left-hand menu (this then lists articles from the most scholarly journals)

• Make use of the catalogue links within the record access the article; many of the records give one-click (more if you need to go through login) access through to articles.
• Get PDF and Read Online links open the article directly – you may need to log into the database provider.
• View Access Options link expands the catalogue record and displays the article's access details.
• The links show like this in the catalogue:

The Articles tab is very general and you may get a lot of results which are not relevant. 

3) Use a Library eResource

• Here you can locate journal articles on specific topics which are directly aimed at your subject area.  Find details in the Databases (eResources) section on the left.
   

The Library pays for you to have access to these key resources and you will improve your marks if you read and reference appropriate library materials in your work!