What ARE journals and journal articles?
Journals:
contain a collection of articles, written about very specific topics. They are a bit like an academic version of a magazine.
are published regularly, making them a great source of up-to-date information
usually focus on a particular area
Journal articles:
are the articles which have been published in journals
contain the latest primary research and reviews
are often peer-reviewed (find out more about peer review further down this page)
You are likely to use journal articles a lot during your studies, so it’s worth exploring them in a little more detail.
Explore a journal article
Confused by all the numbers on a journal article? Unsure how an abstract can help you? Explore this journal article by clicking or tapping the question marks, to find out what it all means.
What do we mean by 'peer review'?
A peer-reviewed article is a piece of academic writing that has been assessed and approved by other experts in the field before publication. This process ensures that the article meets the editorial standards of the journal in which it is to be published.
Why does peer review matter for my assignments?
Using peer-reviewed articles means you have a level of assurance about the credibility of the information. To pass the peer-review process, an article must be well-researched, logically argued and well-written. If you use peer-reviewed research in your writing, it follows that your writing will have greater credibility.
Watch this short video to find out more about the peer review process
Journal articles at UEA
What's available to me?
UEA Library gives you access to over 150 million articles, including over 140 million peer-reviewed articles, and the best way to find them is to use Library Search.
Articles can be accessed from anywhere, including from off-campus.
You can download and save, or print, journal articles.
How do I find them?
To find journal articles, head to the Library homepage and look up your article using the 'search everything' button.
You can search for a particular article, or you can look for relevant articles by searching using key words. Find out how to search using keywords.
Library search lets you filter your results. You might want to return results for only peer-reviewed articles, or look at articles which are from a particular date range, for example.