What is a Journal and why they're not all the same

Finding Citations to Articles whatever your topic may be

Getting the Articles (Part 2) once you have a citation

Journal articles are not found in the Wesleyan Library Catalog. The Catalog lists journal titles. To find articles on a particular topic, you must consult an index to journal articles (see Finding Citations to Articles below). An index will tell you in which journal each article can be found. Once you have a citation to an article, you can use the CTW Online Catalog (see Getting the Articles below) to see if we have the journal in which it was published.

Journals are ongoing publications issued with the same title (usually), on a regular or periodic basis, with no expected end to their publication (e.g. newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, annual reports).

Articles in journals contain specific analyses of particular aspects of a topic. Since journal articles can be published more quickly than books, they are a good source for the very latest available information on a topic. (Books usually cover a broader range of topics much more thoroughly.)

The two main types of journals are popular magazines and scholarly (academic) journals:

• Popular magazines: general news and information sources covering a broad subject area, intended for a general audience. The authors are usually staff writers or freelance journalists and writers working for the magazine.
• Scholarly journals: usually written by academic scholars reporting the results of original experiments or research in a specific subject area. Articles in scholarly journals are usually peer reviewed, meaning that articles submitted for publication are critiqued by other experts in the field for accuracy, relevance to the field, importance of the contents, and whether related publications are taken into account before they are published. 

For example, Behavioral and Brain Science would publish an article by a researcher reporting the results of original experiments in technical detail written for other experts in the field. New Scientist would publish an article by a journalist summarizing those results for a more general audience.

The following chart summarizes the differences between these two types of journals:

To find a journal article by a particular author or on a certain topic:

1. Select an index or database of publications relevant to your topic.
2. Search the index for a citation to an article relevant to your topic; a citation lists the title, author, and subject(s) of an article and the journal in which the article was published.
   See the page on Searching Indexes and Databases for tips on effective index/database searching techniques and advanced searching strategies such as doing a combined search for several topics at once.
3. Search the Wesleyan Library Catalog (see Getting the Articles below) to see whether the library owns the journal or provides online access.
   Hint: When you find a citation in an online index, the easiest way to check whether we have the journal in our collection is to open a second web browser. If you are using Netscape, click on "File" in the upper left corner, and select the "New Window" option. Then log into the Wesleyan Library Catalog in your second Netscape browser window. Now, you can go back and forth between the two browser windows to search for journal titles quickly and easily.

   Selecting an index or database

The library subscribes to many general and subject specific indexes, both in paper and online, in which you can find citations to articles by a particular author or on a certain topic. For more thorough coverage of a topic, use at least two relevant indexes. To find online indexes, see the list of the library's online indexes and databases; for paper indexes, use the Wesleyan Library Catalog; or, ask a librarian for assistance.

• All indexes include citations to articles which list the title and author of each article indexed, and the title, specific issue, and page numbers of the journal in which it was published.
• Most indexes include a list of subject headings to indicate the main topics of each article.
• Some include an abstract, which is a brief description of the article.
• An increasing number of online databases also provide the full text of articles.

Some of the library's main online journal indexes:

• Expanded Academic - Articles, including many in full text, from both scholarly and general interest periodicals in the social sciences, arts and humanities, education, science and technology, and current events.
• General Sciences Abstracts
• Humanities Abstracts
• Social Sciences Abstracts
  • From the WilsonWeb set of online databases, these indexes offer abstracts and some full text for articles in their subject areas, with coverage since 1984 (for older publications, consult paper volumes of these or similar indexes in the library). The focus is on academic and scholarly publications, with very broad subject coverage. They do not cover any one subject with significant depth. These indexes are good places to start your research, and may be sufficient for basic research needs. But for more in-depth and thorough research, you should also use subject specific indexes.
• PCI (Periodicals Contents Index) - PCI lists the contents of many humanities and social science journals, including some foreign language publications, from their first issue (from as far back as 1770) to five years before the present.
• Readers' Guide - Another general index covering a wide range of subjects, focusing on popular and news magazines, with online coverage since 1983, and in paper since 1890. The online version (via WislonWeb) provides some full text of articles indexed.
• Subject specific indexes - The library subscribes to many subject specific indexes which provide more extensive and thorough coverage in a specific subject area. We have indexes covering economics (EconLit), psychology (PsycInfo), mathematics (MathSciNet), and many other subjects. Go to the list of all the library's online indexes and databases to find appropriate online sources. For paper indexes, consult the CTW Online Catalog or ask a reference librarian.

And full-text databases:

The library is subscribing to an increasing number of full-text databases where you can search and access the full text of many articles on your computer. Here are a few of the major full text databases. For more, see the online indexes and databases page, where all full text databases currently subscribed to are listed.

• Lexis-Nexis - Indexes many newspapers, magazines, trade journals, transcripts, and other sources on general news, business, political, legal, and medical subjects. Most citations in Lexis-Nexis are linked to the full text of the article.
• JSTOR - Full text issues of many scholarly journals, with coverage from the first issue of a journal but not including (for copyright reasons) the most recent five years. You can search by author, title, or keyword, or you can browse the tables of contents of issues of a particular journal.
• Project Muse - An online subscription service to the full text of current issues of many scholarly journals, covering from the early '90s to the present. You can search by author, title, or keyword, or you can browse the tables of contents of issues of a particular journal.

When you have a citation for an article, there are several ways to get the actual article:

1. Full text online: If the citation in the online index or database in which you are searching provides a link to the full text of the article, your problem is solved.
2. Wesleyan Library Catalog: will tell you if we have the journal in print or online.
3. Interlibrary Loan: If the journal is not available online or in a Wesleyan library, you can request the article via ILL (see the interlibrary loan request section of the How to Get What Isn't Here page).

To Check the CTW Online Catalog for Wesleyan, Trinity, and Conn Librarys' journal holdings, proceed to the next page,

Getting the Articles Once You Have a Citation