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How to find Journal Articles

Why do you need journal articles?

Researchers write journal articles about their current research projects, describing the latest results. For readers, journal articles are useful to keep up-to-date with research and track developments in a particular field.

How do you find journal articles?

From a reference on a reading list

If you have a bibliographical reference for a journal article, for example in a reading list:

1. look up the journal name in the library's A-Z-list and click on the correct volume and issue;
2. if the journal is not in the A-Z list, check Discover;
3. if TU Delft Library does not have a subscription to the journal, contact Ask Your Library to help you order a copy from another library.

Journal articles about a particular topic

Use a bibliographic database to find journal articles about a particular topic. A bibliographic database contains descriptions of journal articles.

A description includes:

• title of the article
• author(s): name, contact information
• source: journal name, volume, issue, page numbers
• abstract
• keywords
• date of publication

Some databases provide more information:

• citations: who has cited the article
• language of the article

Increasingly, databases offer a direct link to the full-text article (if the library has a subscription to the journal).

There are two main groups of bibliographic databases:

• multidisciplinary databases: cover a wide range of subject areas
• specialist databases: cover a specific subject area

A multidisciplinary database will often produce more results, but they will not necessarily all be relevant to your topic. A specialist database may produce fewer but more relevant results. It is a good idea to try a few different databases to find out which is best for your particular topic.

Searching in a multidisciplinary database: an example

Two major multidisciplinary databases are Scopus and Web of Science. They both cover a wide range of subjects within the fields of science, technology, medicine and social science.

Google Scholar and Citeseer are examples of freely accessible databases. Access to full-text articles may be restricted.