Library Subject Guides
If we're looking for academic articles, the most obvious place to find them is in a journal, because that's where they've typically been published. Historically, journals were physical magazines, but now they're mostly online: eJournals.
On this page we'll look at how to access journals and journal content online. We'll use the term ejournal a lot here, to make a distinction from a print journal, but it's a term that isn't really used that much now that pretty much all journal content is published online anyway (and most of it exclusively so).
There are a few different ways we can access ejournals…
We could browse individual journals one by one in search of items of interest, just as we might browse print magazines at a newsagents or print books on the library shelves...
To find out what ejournals are available, try BrowZine where you can:
If you search for a journal that is print only or is not available via BrowZine you will see a link to YorSearch.
BrowZine only includes journal issues from 2005 onwards. To find older issues you will need to check YorSearch (use the See All link in BrowZine).
You can also access all of our ejournals from YorSearch:
If a journal is available electronically, select the Full text available or Electronic resource links.
You could read every journal that's published on your subject, but that's probably a lot of journals. Fortunately, there are databases which catalogue the contents of a selection of journals. You can search these databases to find the specific articles that will be of use to you.
Most of these databases don't actually include the text of the articles. Rather they're just an index of catalogue records. So how do you read the article?
When you get your results from a search of a database, you will see some kind of link to YorSearch (sometimes an icon like 
though the name or icon will vary depending on the database).
Click on the icon or link to check if we have the full text of a journal article. A YorSearch window will open providing information about whether we have access to an article online. The following options may display:
Academic publishing is a big business, which means accessing ejournal content isn't necessarily straightforward…
You might be tempted to just Google the name of an article, journal or database in order to get to it. This will sometimes work if you're on campus, but usually you'll be hit with a complicated log-in interface or a paywall.
You don't need to pay anything, but you do need to let the journal provider know you're from the University of York, and the easiest way to do that is to access ejournal content via the Library's webpages using the links in things like YorSearch or BrowZine — these will then prompt you to log in using your IT Services username and password.
If you are not a University of York member of staff or student, you will only have access to the full text of the small number of journals which are freely available to anyone.
If you are able to visit the Library in person you can access a wider range of ejournals using our Walk-in Access service. Publishers' licence conditions restrict off campus access to ejournals to University of York staff and students only.
There are two formats which are most commonly used for ejournals:
When citing a journal article, you'll be encouraged to include a link — preferably a DOI (more of which below).
You could also collect links for your own convenience.
Unfortunately, getting hold of a link isn't always straightforward. Links have a tendency to change. If you're wanting to keep a link to an article you're best off finding some sort of permanent link: a "permalink".
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique and persistent alphanumeric label, (a NISO standard), created to identify a piece of intellectual property. You can even get a DOI for your own work.
DOIs are mostly used for articles in ejournals, but also for ebooks and chapters within them. As it will not change, a DOI can be used to create a stable URL (web address) for embedding links to e-resources in web pages, etc.
You might find DOIs or DOI links on journal articles or in databases. They are often used when citing articles.
DOIs are often printed near the top or in the margin of an article, and/or near the top of the publisher's 'landing page' for the article. They'll look something like this:
doi:10.1000/182
A DOI can be turned into a hyperlink by adding doi.org/ to the front of the number:
This will link to a specific version of the article, possibly on a publisher's website. Because of this, it might not incorporate the University sign-in options, so it may not be the best choice for generating a link for your own personal reference use. You may therefore also want to consider the following alternatives:
You can link to the YorSearch result for a journal or article using the permalink option in YorSearch:
This will have the benefit of giving you the sign-in options as you leave YorSearch.
You can get links to articles via BrowZine by left clicking on the Share icon in an article record and selecting Copy Link to Article.
Even if there's no DOI option, the publisher's site may still have an option to create a permanent link.
Failing that, you could access the full text of a journal article (via YorSearch, a database or other route) and then copy and paste the URL (the web address in your browser).
Beware: this method may be prone to the instability of publisher URLs, should a publisher change their URL the link will be broken and have to be mended if and when it comes to your attention. The publisher's information page ('landing page') for an article may have a more stable link than the PDF it links to.
It's useful to save copies of the articles you find useful…
You can use the Print option in your browser to print the full text and graphics of an article.
Remember that you can change your print options to reduce your printing costs:
You can use the Save option in your browser to save the article or webpage to a file.
Remember that copyright legislation applies when you print from an ejournal. The "fair dealing" provision in copyright law permits individuals engaged in research or private study to print or photocopy only one complete article from a single issue of a journal.
It is your responsibility to ensure you are not breaking copyright law.
The ejournals we subscribe to are also subject to licence agreements with the publishers who produce them. The conditions of licences with individual publishers and information providers vary, but they always prohibit downloading a substantial part of a database or the entire contents of a publication, for example an entire issue of an ejournal.
It is your responsibility to ensure you are not breaking the licence agreement.
An ejournal may:
The ejournals in YorSearch and BrowZine all contain full text articles.
Use YorSearch or BrowZine when you know the journal title you need, for example if you are looking for a specific article from a reference.
Use a database when you need to find out what articles are available on your subject in a range of journal titles. See our eResources Guide for information on the databases we provide and how they can help you.
Some publishers don't allow us to link directly to the specific journal title. In these cases you will need to search for the journal title or for an article title if you have it.
Some publishers don't give permission for the most recent issues of a journal to be made available in full text electronic format. This embargo can range from a couple of months up to a year, depending on the title. During this time you may still be able to access the table of contents and abstracts.
There are a variety of subscription arrangements for ejournals.
NESLi2 is the UK's national initiative for the licensing of ejournals on behalf of the higher and further education and research communities.
Since 1999 we have taken advantage of deals negotiated with leading scholarly publishers which have lessened the financial, legal and technical barriers to the widespread take-up of ejournal provision.
Unfortunately, many publishers are unwilling to offer deals and in these cases ejournals can be an expensive option.
