What is a journal?
A journal is a regular publication that is published weekly, monthly or quarterly. They are subject based and contain articles written by experts or professionals in that subject. University of Suffolk library has a wide range of journals, available both in hard copy or online as e-journals
Journals may also be referred to as periodicals and serials, they are just different words for the same publication.
How do I find journal articles?
You can find journal articles by using our resource discovery tool, Summon. this tool will also highlight key databases for your search, and allow you to search them individually.
What is an abstract?
An abstract is a summary of the research written in a small number of words (typically half a page at most)..
They're often found at the beginning of dissertations, theses, or journal articles. The abstract should give the reader enough information about the research to make them recognise its significance and assess whether it is relevant to the particular area they are researching.
This section is important because it potentially saves you time reading, by allowing you to get a feel for the contents of the article without having to read through it entirely.
What is peer review?
What are Impact Factors?
The Journal Impact Factor is a method of ranking a particular title against others in the field. Ranking is undertaken annually and arrived at using a formula based on the number of times articles in a particular journal have been cited in the previous two years divided by the total number of articles published in the journal title in the last two years.
Journal Impact Factors are primarily used in the scientific publishing community, but are increasingly being applied to humanities journals
How do I find out the impact factor of a journal?
You can access Journal Citation Reports (JCR) through the Web of Science database. (see link to Web of Science below - once in the database find the link to Journal Citation Reports at the top of the screen)
Once in Web of Knowledge select Additional Resources and search for the journal title that you want to find.
The Web of Science database allows you to search a large number of scholarly journals, books, and proceedings across many subject areas. You can select which collection(s) you would like to search in this database; the default search is in the Web of Science Core Collection, which covers the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities from 1970-present.
The content of this collection is searchable in Discovery.
Access to this collection is provided by the University of Suffolk. Users may be redirected to the standard UoS authentication screen after clicking the above link; please enter your S number (e.g., S123456) and password.
Where can I find print journals in the library?
The USC Ipswich library provides students with a small number of print version journals.
The print journals are located in the back corner of the University of Suffolk Ipswich library, in the Journal Archive Room.
Whilst some students prefer to access print copies of journals, it is important to remember that the majority of journals available for access are online, and can be found using Summon, or the A-Z of ejournals link.
If you're unable to find the article you're looking for, we can order articles for you using the resource request service. You should check the service details for your local University of Suffolk library.
University of Suffolk Ipswich students:
You can request to order an article by completing the correct form (below) and returning a signed copy to the Information Desk at the library.
The number of article requests available to you depends on your level of study.