Journals are also known as periodicals. They are an important resource because they:
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 
link to check if we have the full text available from elsewhere.
Below are links to some of the main databases in the areas of Government and Politics.
Libraries and Learning Resources subscribe to a vast array of electronic resources of relevance to all subjects. These include, but are not limited to:
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.
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.