Finding journal articles in electronic and print journals
Essential tools
Search it!
- Search it!
- Search it! is a service that should make searching for electronic
resources much easier. It allows you to search several databases at once,
using a simple and consistent interface. In many cases, the results will
also be shown within Search it!, either with the full text shown
directly or with the familiar Find
it! links to the full text.
- Search it! helpsheet
- A guide to using the Search it! service. The above link is to the web (HTML)
version: there is also a PDF version (46k, PDF help) you can download and print.
- Search it! FAQ
- Frequently asked questions about the Search it! service, including troubleshooting
tips.
Find it!
- Find it! e-journals
list
- This allows you to search for a specific e-journal, or look for a list of e-journal titles by subject.
- Find it! article finder
- This should be used if you already have a reference to a specific
journal article. If it's not available electronically, you will
be able to link through to the Library
catalogue to check if we have a
print copy.
- Find it! helpsheet
- A guide to using the Find it! service. The above link is to the web (HTML)
version: there is also a PDF version (44k, PDF help) you can download and print.
- Find it! FAQ
- Frequently asked questions about the Find it! service, including troubleshooting
tips.
Library Catalogue
- Library catalogue
- The catalogue lists all of our print journal holdings, along with many
of our e-journals. If you use More search options, you can search only journals by choosing Journals
Catalogue from the Collection drop down list. Alternatively, you can refine your search by limiting it to the Journals Catalogue after your initial search results appear. Also, remember that if you
want to search for articles on a given subject you need to use Search it! or one of the
subject databases: the catalogue only lets you search for the journal title,
not the articles in it. If you already have a full reference for an article,
you may find it quicker to use the Find it! article
finder as that will search
our electronic holdings first, and allow you to transfer the search to the
catalogue if no electronic version can be found.
Searching for articles by keyword in a range of journals
If you want to search for relevant articles on a particular subject,
it's best to search in one or more of the databases in your subject area:
- If you want to search several databases in your subject area at once and see combined results, use our Search it! service. This allows you to search preselected collections of databases (Quicksets), or see categorised listings from which you can customise your own set of databases to search, most of which you can do from a single consistent interface, so you don't need to learn how to use each individual database. For most people this will be the best starting point.
- Alternatively, if you don't know the name of any full-text journal services,
you could use our listings of Resources
by subject. These list all of the relevant resources for
your subject area, including abstracting and indexing services,
plus full-text
electronic journal services.
- If you already know the name of a full-text journal service
that you want to use - for example, Emerald -
you'll find these all listed alphabetically in the list of Databases
by Title. This will give you a list of article references,
often with direct links to the full text via our Find
it! service.
- We provide additional help on searching for articles using subject
databases:
- If you want to see all our journal holdings, including print
and microfilm (rather than just e-journals), you can also search
for a specific journal title via the Library
catalogue.
^ Top of page
Logging in to access e-journals
E-journals are provided via a wide variety of publishers and services, and
(unfortunately) they have a variety of methods of controlling access. We
(along with other educational institutions and publishers) have been working
hard to try to simplify this:
- The good news is that the vast majority of our e-journals services use
a system which lets you use your MMU
network ID and password to log in, and once you are logged into
one resource
you should
be logged in to many of them until you close your browser.
- As many of our
subject databases also use the same system for logging in, you may
already be logged in by the time you come to access a particular article,
in which case
you shouldn't have to log in again.
- There are some services which don't use the main system, and which
use their own usernames and passwords. These are chiefly small publishers
who
publish only a few journals, and whose electronic access is primarily
aimed at personal subscribers. We have now started to make the login details
for
these services available via the website when you follow a link to one
of the services concerned. You will have to log in using your MMU network
ID
and password in order to see the login information: just note down the
login details for the service and link through to it.
- When accessing an e-journal via the Find
it! service, you should see a note telling you if the service
uses the main system, or if it uses its own password (in which case
you'll see a link to the password information).
- A small number of services are only available on-campus - this is due
to restrictions imposed by the publishers.
- If you encounter problems accessing any of our services, please contact your local library helpdesk.
^ Top of page