Sociology 1001 Library Research Guide
Finding articles in journals.
- This section of the Sociology 1001 Library Guide explains how to locate a journal article when you have the full details for an article. For example, the article is mentioned in a lecture or is on a reading or essay list. To find out how to locate journal articles where only a topic or subject is known go to the Electronic databases section of this guide
What is a journal article | Articles in reading or essay lists | Electronic Journals | Articles in Special Reserve | Locating journal articles not held by the Library |
What is a journal article
- A journal is an ongoing publication
- It may have been published for two or three years or have been published since the 1930s
- It may be issued once or twice a year, quarterly or weekly
- An issue of a journal may contain several articles on different asoects of a topic
- A journal may also be called a magazine, serial or periodical
- Some examples of Sociology journals are:
Click on each title to see for how long the journal has been published
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology-
Sociological Quarterly
-
Australian Journal of Social Issues
Articles in reading or essay lists
As part of the research process you may be required to cite or refer to journal articles. Articles will be included in lists of references for an essay or tutorial or you may be asked to find your own journal references for an essay topic or specific subject area.
Where the full citation for an article is known for eg,
- Putnam, R. (1995) 'Bowling Alone: America's declining social capital', Journal of Democracy 6(1): 65-78
or
- Worthington A.C, Dollery B.E. (2000) Can Australian local government play a meaningful role in the development of social capital in disadvantaged rural communities? Australian Journal of Social Issues 35(4): 349-361
check the Library catalogue for holdings. In the above example you would select the Journal search option on the catalogue menu and enter the name of the journal not the title of the article Australian Journal of Social Issues, note the location Fisher Research and call number 360.5 1 . The holding statement for the Fisher Research location appears as 1(1961)-33(1998)- this indicates that any volumes published after 1998 will be located in the Current Serials room on Level 3. To obtain a copy of this article, go to 360.5 1 on the shelves in Current Serials Room on Level 3 of Fisher Library, find pages 349-361 in issue volume 35. Past volumes of the Journal will be located in Fisher Research on Level 4 at the same dewey number
Note that this journal is also held in a number of other Libraries on campus. Note that both journal titles are also available electronically.
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Electronic Journals
Some journals are available in electronic format. For example Australian Journal of Social Issues is available in both print and electronic form. The catalogue entry for this title includes a call number and a hyperlink to the electronic version of of Australian Journal of Social Issues
A link to an electronic journal may
- link to a specific journal
- link to a database (for example Expanded Academic Index ASAP, JSTOR & MUSE) which includes the full-text for many different journals. If this is the case, search for the title of the article you require.It is also possible to browse the contents of a specific title. In some cases the link will locate the specific journal title in the collection. The link to the Journal of Democracy will take you directly to that title in the Muse collection of journals.
Journal of democracy, v. 6 (1995)- Project Muse
Electronic journal examples
Australian journal of social issues is also available electroncally via the Library catalogue
Australian journal of social issues, v. 34 no. 4 (Nov 1999)- Expanded Academic ASAP access from November 1999 onward. In some cases a link to an electronic title will take you directly to that title in other cases you will need to locate a specific article or journal title within a database. In this case it is probably easiest to type in the title or keywords from the title of the article. You can also browse the contents of a journal by searching on the journal title.
Journal of Democracy is located in the Fisher Research Library 321.805 8 1 Current issues are located in the Current Serials Room Level 3, Fisher Library. There is also an electronic version of this journal available via Project Muse.
Most electronic journals are available via the Library catalogue. However you can also search and browse the electronic journal collections list on the Library database page.See the listing under ejournal collections
Library Database and Electronic Resources Page
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/databases/
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Locating journal articles not held by the Library
Sometimes you may have a reference to a journal articles that is not held by this Library. Check:
- Serials in Australian Libraries Database tht allows you to find out where in Australia a specific article is held or
- Another Library Catalogue such as the State Library of New South Wales, University of New South Wales or Macquarie University.
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Articles in Special Reserve
The only time that you can search the for a journal article by title in the catalogue is when it has been placed in the Special Reserve Collection. Key articles from reading and essay lists are frequently scanned and made available electronically.
The following article is available in the Electronic Reserve Collection
- Coleman, J. 1988, 'Social Capital in the creation of human capital', American Journal of Sociology, vol.94, pp. 95-120
- The title of the article is in inverted commas the title of the journal is italicised.
- If you think an article has been placed on Electronic Reserve, you may search the catalogue by the title of the article
In the above example a catalogue title search for
Social Capital in the creation of human capital will locate an electronic copy of this article.
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