A journal is a publication focusing on a particular subject area which can contain articles, letters, research, opinions and reviews written by different authors. Journals are published at regular intervals, such as weekly, monthly or quarterly. Each copy is an issue and a set of issues makes a volume (usually each year is a separate volume). Journals are also known as periodicals.
Anything you see on Primo or in our Libraries with PER in the classmark, it is a journal (Periodical) containing short papers on specific topics. They can be found in print format, online or both.
Why use a journal article?
Borrowing a journal
You can borrow a journal overnight. You will need to place a request for the specific journal volume in Primo. Instructions on requesting a journal.
Journals provide important sources of academic information.
FAQ 1185 has detailed instructions on how to search for full-text articles on Primo.
Aberystwyth University libraries subscribes to a wide range of e-journals.
Further information can be found on Elec Info electronic resources webpage.
LibKey Nomad is browser extension that automatically provides links to full-text content of journal articles from our Library subscriptions or open access alternatives as you undertake research.
LibKey Nomad searches our Library holdings and open access data to source the best version of the article while you are searching the web and come across literature.
Using LibKey Nomad is simple:
Once the extension is installed, whenever you come across a journal article outside of the library catalogue, LibKey Nomad will inform you if the article is available through the library's subscriptions, or if there is an open access copy available through a banner alert at the bottom of the page.
When you land on a page with an article that is available to download, a LibKey Nomad banner will appear at the bottom of your screen. Click to download the PDF. If you are off-campus, you will need to log-in via VPN first.
If you are using the academic databases PubMed and Scopus, LibKey provides additional functionality. On the search results page you can see links to article PDFs and links to view all the articles in a journal issue through BrowZine.
