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Access to HE Education: Finding Journal Articles

Journals are magazines that cover a particular subject or profession. Each journal issue contains a number of articles, written by different authors, all of which will relate to the subject covered by the journal. 

Journals are also called periodicals or serials, because they are published on an ongoing basis throughout the year - this can be weekly, monthly, quarterly etc.

We have some journals in print but most of our journals are available online on or off campus. If prompted to login use your Bradford College username and password.

We recommend using:

DISCOVER if you want to search for journal articles on a subject

A to Z of Journals to search for, and browse, a particular journal title
Online Databases for more detailed subject searches

Why use Journals?

  • Your tutor will expect you to use academic journals when researching and writing your assignments. 
  • Journals are published more frequently than books, so they are the best way of keeping up to date with the latest research in your subject area. 
  • Academic journals contain articles written by specialists in that subject area.  You may come across the terms 'refereed' or 'peer reviewed'. This means that the journal has been approved by other specialists in the field.
  • Journals can provide more in-depth or specialised information on a subject than books.
  • Journals can provide recent statistics.

Search tips

  • Use DISCOVER to find academic articles
  • Use the project or assignment title to pick out keywords. Keywords are words that describe the information you are searching for. They are also known as search terms.
  • Combine different keywords or search terms in a single search, by using operators. The three most commonly used operators are AND, OR, NOT. These are known as Boolean operators. They can be used to broaden or narrow a search.
  • Search for a phrase by using quote marks, eg. "health inequalities". 
  • Think of synonyms such as NHS or "national health service"
  • Too many results - Be more specific.  Narrow by looking for recent issues, areas of interest or developments, eg "health policy", "food banks", poverty. Add terms such as gender, class, "young people" or adults to search for particular groups.
  • Too few results - try using more general terms for your keywords.

Print Journals for Education

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