Finding Subject Area Journals: Start Here

Before you try to identify a scholarly journal that professionals in a field read or publishing articles in, identify a profession you're interested in.  If you need some help, think about your major or what you would like to do after you graduate.

Once you've identified a field or profession, think about things experts in that field or profession are interested in.  For example, doctors might specialize in cancer research or pediatrics.  You may need to search for journals about specific aspects of a career or profession. 

A little vocabulary...popular magazines, trade publications, newspapers and journals are all periodicals.  Issues are usually published on a regular schedule. Newspapers may be published daily, magazines weekly and journals monthly. Periodicals can be published in paper form, online, or both. 

Next, if you are going to find a scholarly journal for that profession or field, you need to understand what a journal is.  View the short video What is a journal and a peer reviewed article?

There are many ways to find journals for a specific area of study or profession.  The tabs on this guide walk you through a few ways to do it.  Keep these things in mind:

• There are thousands of published journals for more subjects that you might imagine.  A fraction of them are available to you in print in the library. Many more are available to you online in full text either through a library database or on the free web. 
• If you need to find an article in a journal, be aware that not all journals provide online full text access to articles published in that journal. 
• You may need to use more than one term when searching for a journal. For example, a journal search for car or automobile might not find much. A search for vehicle finds more.  
• You may need to use more than one of the options offered on this guide. For example, if using Option1:Library Search doesn't work for you, try Option 2. Publication search in article databases.