Journals

This page gives information about finding the journals held in the Library. If you need to find some journal articles on a topic read our guide to Finding journal articles.

What is a journal?

Journal is the most commonly used word used for a periodical, a magazine, a newspaper, or an annual report - in fact any publication which appears on a regular basis. Journals provide more up-to-date information than a book and describe the latest research. The Library has current subscriptions to around 3000 journals and many more e-journals.

Journals are made up of individual articles. You will usually be given a reference to a journal article to read. For example:

Garcia-Wass, F. et al. (2000) Detection of fruit juice authenticity using pyrolysis mass spectroscopy. Food chemistry, 69, p.215-220.

This gives you the following information:

Author(s) of the article (year of publication) Title of the article. Name of the journal the article was published in, Volume number, page numbers.

To find out if we have this in the Library you will need to search the Unicorn catalogue for the title of the journal the article was published in, “Food chemistry” in this example.

How do I find out what journals you have?

Search the Unicorn catalogue

Search the E-journals Finder

Where are the journals kept?

Journals are shelved in the Periodical sections on the appropriate subject floor.

Journals are shelved in one of two sections depending on their size:

  • A4 size and larger are shelved in the Periodical Folio section - these sections have yellow shelf labels and are shown as yellow blocks on the Floor Plans
  • smaller ones are shelved in the Periodical section - this sections have blue shelf labels and are shown as blue blocks on the Floor Plans.

When looking up a journal on the Unicorn catalogue check if it says Periodical or Periodical Folio in front of the Call Number to guide you to the correct section, eg the general science journal Nature is shelved at Periodical Folio--505.

Earlier issues of most of our journals are kept on Closed Access or at our Off-site Store. These can be requested by filling in the “Request item from closed access” or "Request item from Off-site Store" form when you’ve looked up the title on Unicorn.

Can I borrow journals?

  • Yes - most journals can be borrowed for one day (any time on one day to any time on the next). Journals issued any time on Friday are due any time on Monday.
  • You can borrow 5 bound volumes or issues at once.
  • Fill in a blue loan form for unbound issues.
  • Fines are charged on journals returned late.

Help

  • Staff at any Information Desk should be able to help you with any journal enquiry
  • Telephone: 8785 (internal) or (0118) 378 8785 (external)
  • Email: periodicals.enquiries@reading.ac.uk  
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