A journal (periodical) is a scholarly publication containing articles written by researchers, academics, practitioners and other experts. Journals usually focus on a specific discipline or field of study. Articles in journals often deal with very specific aspects of topics and in depth. If you want a broad overview of your topic, start with a text book. Journals are like magazines: different issues or parts are published at regular intervals and each has the same title. Often each part has a number and all the parts for a year have a volume number. Usually several authors write articles per issue.
Most academic journals are not freely available via Google or Google Scholar. Libraries pay for access and publishers/vendors put together collections of journals for multiple years in databases. These collections may be country of subject specific or multidisciplinary. The Library does not have full text access to every journal that exists.
1. Click on the Databases tab at the top of this page for more information and a list of databases, OR, from the toolbar on the MUT Library homepage under Databases and choose the required database.
Finding South African journal articles
SABINET African Journals online provides a listing of all journals and journal articles published in South Africa in All subject areas.
Full text articles from South African newspapers are available from SA Media on Sabinet
Finding print journals
From the Library website click on Library catalogue (I Link). Type in the title of the journal and click on full record to get details about which issues and year of the journals are held by the library.
Find the journal in the relevant section of the library. Library keeps its journals separate from the books and arranged by Dewey decimal order. Not all journals or articles are available full text online. There are various ways to access online journals.
Newspapers are also periodicals although generally not scholarly but may be a useful source of information. Most newspapers have online versions. SA Media on Sabinet provides scanned newspaper articles from a wide range of South African newspapers going back several decades and Newspaper gateway or Newspaper Direct/Press Reader provides access to a useful range of newspapers from around the world.
• Analytical Chemistry – Shelf location: J 543 ANA