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The majority of journals are available electronically and they can found by searching the library catalogue.
However you will find that a number of journal are available in print in the Main library. Print Journals (also referred as periodicals) are usually Reference only, which means they cannot be borrowed. Recent issues are available on the open shelves while older volumes are kept at STORE and need to be ordered in advance via our Stores service.
In the Main library: German, Romance languages, Scandinavian and Humanities periodicals are located on the 1st Floor, North side, while Dutch periodicals are located in the Dutch room on the 2nd Floor, South side.
If you know the title of the article you need, you can also enter it directly in the Explore search box. If UCL Libraries have an electronic subscription to the journal in which the article is published, this will appear in your results list and you will be able to download the full-text.
Used to disseminate scholarly information that relates to a particular academic discipline. They are aimed at researchers and are often peer-reviewed, which means that articles are evaluated by experts in the field before publication to ensure the information in them is accurate and well presented. An example of academic journal is the British Journal of Special Education.
Generally printed on glossy paper (but can also be available online), they are aimed at a more general audience than academic journals and can include opinions and news items too. An example of magazine is the Times Educational Supplement.
Published on a daily basis, the focus of these is on news items. They can include a section on education, but are wide in scope. An example of newspaper is The Guardian.
Usually published by a special group, learned society or professional organisation and aimed at people working in a specific industry. An example of trade publication is Teach Primary.
UCL subscribes to Browzine, a resource that allows you to organise UCL's academic journals in a browsable format, displayed on virtual bookshelves. Browzine is a great tool to help stay up to date with new content, and bookmark articles that you want to read in the future.
Check out our Explore guide to find out more about how to use Explore for your research.
If you're using one of our databases to find journal articles, you might not be able to read the article within the database itself. If you see the Findit@UCL icon, click on it to link to the full-text
Sometimes you will see a link to the publisher's site. Unless the article is open access, you might find that you can't reach the full-text.
Clicking on the Findit@UCL link instead will link you to the full-text via UCL's subscription access, if available.
If you're using Google Scholar you can set up the Library Links feature so that it will display a findit@UCL link to help show you which articles are available via UCL subscriptions.
UCL has an amazing collection of e-resources, but no library can have full-text access to everything. If you identify a piece of information that would be beneficial to your research, the library will try and source a copy for you via the Inter Library Loans service.You can make a request by logging into UCL Explore and then clicking on the three dots 'show more' menu to access the Inter Library Loan Request form.
