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University of Sunderland Library

Subject Guide: Computer Science

This guide brings together library resources for your studies and research. Use these resources alongside your recommended reading from your tutors to extend your research into new areas

Academic Journals & Articles

Academic journals are an important source of information for your study and research. You may think of them a bit like scholarly magazines. Journals publish issues periodically, for example monthly or quarterly, and most academic journals are peer-reviewed. Journals contain articles relating to a specific subject/topic area; they are essential for finding original research, analysis, case studies and literature reviews that you can then cite in your assignments.

The best place to start your search for academic journals is Library Search. You may also search for academic journal articles in specific Computer Science databases.

More guidance on using Library Search to find academic journal articles can be found further down the page. 

 

What is a peer-reviewed journal?

Academic journals are peer-reviewed. Peer-review is a quality control process. Articles are read by specialists in the field of research before they are published. These readers (called reviewers) check that the article is based on good research, that the methodology is appropriate, that the data collected is valid and credible, that the article brings new knowledge to the field of research.

Searching for & accessing journal articles

The Library subscribes to journals chosen by the Faculty that you can access in print and online. The most effective way of searching is to use Library Search so that you can search across all available sources.

Watch this video to see how to get started with using Library Search to find journal articles:

 

Watch this video for a demonstration of the advanced search feature in Library Search:

Sometimes you may find accessing the full text of an article that you haven’t found through Library Search difficult. You may have found the article on Google Scholar or PubMed where the links do not take you to full text, or through a publishers website that asks you to pay for access, or from a list of references in an article or a book. To get to the full text of the article you need to check that the library has a subscription to access that journal.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Use LibKey Nomad

LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that can be added to most web browsers to give one-click access to full-text, library-subscribed and open-access journals and ebooks. With LibKey installed, when you search for articles with your chosen internet browser, LibKey will run in the background to quickly find the best way to get you full-text access.

2. Use Library Search

If the University has a subscription to the article you need, Library Search will give you the best link to access the full text. Simply search for the title of the article or book you need in Library Search. If it is available, it should appear at the top of the search results. If not, click to 'expand results beyond library collection' to find the article and request a copy through Inter Library Loan. Watch the video below for a demonstration:

[Note: the Resource Sharing option shown in the video is now labelled: Inter Library Loan]

To browse issues or search within a specific journal, you can access a journal directly using the ‘Journal Titles’ option from the library web page. It is easier to start at our website and follow a link from there to the journal or specific article but sometimes you will need to log in once you are on the publisher’s website.