Why look for journals?
Looking for journals can offer a broad picture of a research field. Looking at how researchers and experts communicate with each other can be really helpful. Some journals are considered seminal to a field of research (for example: the New England Journal of Medicine for health sciences).
Like the articles, commentaries, reviews, and other information they contain, journals are highly credible sources and often represent the most recent scholarship in many fields.
Journals will tell you if they are peer reviewed. In a printed journal, look at the publication information in the front of the journal. If you are reading online, go to the journal home page and look for a link to "About this journal" or "Notes for Authors." Here it should tell you if the journal is peer-reviewed.
They will say they are peer-reviewed, and in their notes to authors, they will describe the peer-review process.
Find journals
- Go to the Libraries homepage.
- Enter the journal title or subject into the large search box. Use quotation marks to search for titles and phrases (words in quotation marks must be exactly correct). For example, "Journal of the American Medical Association," "cognitive psychology."
- Use the filters to limit to "Journal titles."
- Select the link for the title or click on "view versions" to see the records for electronic and print versions owned by UMN Libraries; then select the link for the title.
If the University does not provide access to the journal you need, request it from Interlibrary Loan.
Finding journals (when you know some information)
Electronic journals
Search or browse for the title of the journal, magazine or newspaper (e.g. Newsweek, Journal of Anthropology). Then search within the publication for your article or topic.
To find journals (in your area of interest)
- Talk with your instructors, faculty advisor, and colleagues to learn what journals they are following.
- Note the journal titles of articles that are cited in resources you already found.
- Search for topics and note titles of commonly used journals.