There are two ways to find online journal articles:

Library search

• Select the "Journal articles" button on the Find Library Resources box and enter your search terms. From the results list, you can limit your search results to "Full Text", and further refine your search by publication date or limit to peer-reviewed articles.

There is a video on this page to lead you through the process.

• How to find a journal article on Library Search 

Specific database search

• Select your database from the alphabetical listing, or browse by subject to find a relevant database. Enter your keywords and refine your search as required. If you are accessing online resources off-campus, you will need to enter your MyVU login and password when prompted.

There is a video on this page to lead you through the process:.

• How to find a journal article on a library database 

And specific database videos available via the VU Library Vimeo channel:

• How to search in the Emerald Database
• How to search for journal articles in CINAHL
• How to find a journal article using SPORTDiscus
• How to search in the ACM Digital Library

Download this document on 'Database Search Tips' and learn how using truncation, wildcard, connectors, phrases and proximity features leads to more effective searching.

Before you start looking for your journal articles, watch this video. It will explain what a scholarly or academic journal is, and as well as introducing journal databases. In addition, the video explains the peer review process and how you can check that an article is peer-reviewed.

In this presentation you will see how to find a journal article on library’s search. You can search for journal articles on the library’s homepage by typing in the article title, the author or simply by entering keywords. Type in your key words. Choose ‘journal articles’ button and search.  You can limit your search to peer-reviewed articles, full text, as well as choose articles published in the last few years and add more keywords. To access journal article, click on “PDF full text” link or “check for full text” link. This checks all the library databases. If the article is not available, there is an option to request the article. For further information, please contact us through ‘Ask a Librarian’ service or talk to a  library staff member if on campus.

This video will demonstrate how to conduct a basic search for journal articles in the database Academic Search Premier. Before you begin your search, it is important to determine your keywords.

In this example I am researching the effectiveness of exercise as a treatment for depression. I have Identified keywords that describe my topic as well as synonyms and related terms. For more about keyword searching click the link at the end of this video.To locate the database, go to the Journals A-Z listing and then select ‘A’ under ‘Browse alphabetically’. Click on Academic Search Premier and then connect to the database. From the Advanced Search Screen Type in your keyword terms into the individual boxes. Once you have typed in all your keywords, click ‘Search’. There are 533 results for the keywords ‘depression’ AND “effectiveness” AND “exercise”. To narrow down your search results further use the Refine Results toolbar on the left hand side of the page. I have further limited my search results to only include academic journal articles and published in the last 5 years. Notice the search results have now reduced to 311 articles. Scroll through the list of results. 

The title, abstract and subjects should provide enough information to help you determine whether the article is relevant to your search. If you do not get relevant results you may need to go back and revise your search terms by changing, adding or/and removing terms. Click on the article title for more detailed information about the article. Here you will find all the information required for referencing. To see the full text, click on ‘PDF Full Text’. When the ‘PDF full text’ link does not appear, click on the check for full text link. In most cases you will be directed to the full text version of the article. Alternatively, you may be directed to the Electronic Resources access page. Follow the links to access the article or if not available, request the article. You can save articles from a search session into a folder. This is done by clicking on the folder next to the title. All the articles you have selected to go into the temporary folder. To view saved articles in your folder, select ‘Folder View’. You can select individual articles by clicking on the checkboxes or ‘select’ all of the articles in your folder.  Use the tools on the right hand side of the screen to either print, email and save all or selected articles. 

In this presentation you will see how to find a journal article on a library database. To access databases, click on “Databases A-Z”. You can search the databases by name or browse alphabetically or by subject. Click on letter “S” to select SportDiscus database. Connect to the database by clicking on “SPORTDiscus with fulltext”. Enter your search terms. Select options available from the drop down menu. You can limit your search to peer-reviewed articles and full text as well as choose articles published in the last few years. Link to the full text of the article. Contact the library through Ask-a-Librarian for further information.

This video will explain what a scholarly or academic journal is and what is a journal database. In simple terms, a scholarly journal also referred to as an academic journal or peer- reviewed or refereed journal, is a collection of articles that are written by academics or experts in their field. Scholarly journals differ from popular magazines (Image) or trade publications (Image) or newspapers (Image) as the articles published in these are meant for general audience, usually written by journalists and most importantly, the articles in these publications do not go through the peer review process. On the other hand, scholarly journals are subject specific, written by experts/researchers in the field and often reports on original research or experimentation. Use specialized language and have extensive reference list at the end. Finally, these articles go through the peer review process to ensure the quality and relevance of the article!

Now you must be thinking what Peer review is and why is it such a big deal! Let me explain. Peer review is an editorial process where by a researcher writes an article and submits it to the journal’s editor, who then sends the article to one or more reviewers. These reviewers are experts or researchers in the same field who are considered as authors peers! These impartial reviewers precisely evaluate the quality and credibility of the article, ensuring the information in the article is accurate, reliable and well researched. The peer reviewers may reject the article or send it back to the authors for revision before it gets published.

The library subscribes to print copies of journals and puts them onto the library shelves. However, the Library’s preferable method for purchasing and subscribing to journals is through online journal databases. So, to get an idea of what a database is: think of Apple iTunes, which is a database of songs you buy! Likewise a journal database is a collection of online or e-journals, packaged together by topic or discipline. Some are subject specific databases and some are multi-disciplinary databases and contains full text of the article however, some may/only contain abstract or summary of the article. Journal databases can be searched collectively through Library Search. You can also search them individually, browse the databases alphabetically or browse by subject. Many databases offer ways of limiting your search results to peer reviewed articles. Look for options/refinements or limiters such as Peer reviewed, Academic journals or Scholarly journals. Alternatively, the Ulrichsweb database can be used to check if the journal is peer reviewed or not!

For further information refer to the relevant guide or contact us online.