LibGuides: Physics and Astronomy: Journals

Journals

Journals are also known as periodicals. They are an important resource because they:

are published on a regular basis
contain the most up to date scholarly research in their subject
tend to be shorter and discuss the subject in more detail than books

Some examples: Lancet; Nature; Journal of Black Studies; Art History; Journal of World Literature.

Don't rely solely on Google or even Google Scholar for your research! Findit@Bham is a good place to start looking for good quality journal articles, but it is more efficient if you use one of the bibliographic databases available in your subject. These will find relevant journal articles and sometimes also books, reports, working papers and conference proceedings.

Some databases will give direct full-text access to the articles. Others will provide an index and abstract (a short summary) of the article.

If the full text is not available in the database, there will be a FindIt@Bham link to check if we have the full text available from elsewhere.

Recommended Databases

INSPEC This link opens in a new window INSPEC is part of EI Engineering Village along with Compendex and GEOBASE. It includes bibliographic citations and indexed abstracts from publications in the fields of physics, electrical and electronic engineering, communications, computer science, control engineering, information technology, manufacturing and mechanical engineering, operations research, material science, oceanography, engineering mathematics, nuclear engineering, environmental science, geophysics, nanotechnology, biomedical technology and biophysics. Coverage is from 1896.
IOP Journals This link opens in a new window Covers more than 70 science journals
Materials Science & Engineering (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window The Materials Science & Engineering Database includes the renowned METADEX, Copper and Polymer Library databases and provides full-text titles from around the world, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings and government publications. For those researchers who need to conduct comprehensive literature reviews, this database includes specialized, editorially-curated A&I resources for discovery of relevant scholarly research and technical literature critical to the discipline.
MathSciNet This link opens in a new window MathSciNet (the online version of Mathematical Reviews) is a comprehensive database covering the worlds mathematical literature since 1940. It provides access to bibliographic data and reviews of mathematical research literature.
SCOPUS This link opens in a new window Large abstract and citation database providing access to 19,000 titles from a wide range of international publishers. It contains peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources.
Zentralblatt MATH - English This link opens in a new window The most comprehensive and longest-running abstracting and reviewing service in pure and applied mathematics. There is some coverage from the 18th century but abstracts and reviews of mathematical literature are complete from 1868. Formerly known as ZentralblattMATH.
Royal Society of Chemistry Journals Archive This link opens in a new window Contains the full-text of all articles published by the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1841 to 2007

Barbour Environment, Health & Safety This link opens in a new window A full-text searchable database of UK-based health and safety information, including environment and food safety information. Contains regulations, guidelines, articles, sumaries of key documents and guides which provide a quick overview of a topic.
CCInfoWeb This link opens in a new window This is a collection of several health and safety-related databases made available by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. The service covers the toxic effects of chemicals and gives information on safe workplace practices.
Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials This link opens in a new window Extensive data on toxicology, reactivity, fire, and explosive potential for over 25,000 substances.

If you wish to carry out historical research into Physics and Astronomy the Cadbury Research Library holds a number of important archive collections available for research into the study of the physical sciences. These include the archive of the Mason Science College; the Birmingham University Astronomical Society, 1909-1912; The University of Birmingham Chemical Society; papers of Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940); and the papers of Maurice Stacey, including the History of Chemistry in Birmingham, 1930-1980 and papers relating to the Lunar Society of Birmingham.

Please contact The Cadbury Research Library for further information.

Finding databases

Libraries and Learning Resources subscribe to a vast array of electronic resources of relevance to all subjects. These include, but are not limited to:

bibliographic databases;
historical sources;
original texts;
newspapers;
statistics;
multi-media resources.

The 'Using FindIt@Bham to search for databases' video tutorial outlines how to search for databases relevant to you:

If you know the name of the database you wish to access, enter the name of it into the search bar and select the Databases button underneath the search bar. For example, to search for the database Medline:

Alternatively, you can use FindIt@Bham to explore the databases we have available by clicking on the Database A-Z tab at the top of the screen.

To explore the databases relevant to your subject area, select a subject from the Resource Subject filter on the left-hand side.

If you are looking for a specific type of resource, for example Newspapers, use the Resource Type filter on the left-hand side.

Access to databases

Once you select a database, it will show you the catalogue record and description of it. Read this description carefully the first time you use it as it may include specific information on how to access it using a special password, or the need to register with the provider to gain access.