From the First Year to the Final Year of your degree, your module lecturers will want to see that you have talked about research in journal articles in your assessments.
Journal articles are usually:
You will be able to search across journal articles on a topic by using Library SmartSearch, and this may be most appropriate for you if you need to obtain a few full-text journal articles on a particular subject. You can also find book and ebook titles froom here.
You can use Scopus and Web of Science, two bibliographic databases, to carry out a comprehensive search for journal articles in your subject area. Or, if you are looking for a specific journal, you can browse our Journal A-Z.
To start an in-depth search simply click on one of the links below, and follow any log-in requests using your Aston University username and password. Depending on the database, a full-text article can be obtained by clicking on the PDF/HTML link or details of provision can be found by clicking on the 
button.
The reference for a journal article usually looks something like this:
For example:
Clough, H., & Closier, A. (2018). Walking the talk: Using digital media to develop distance learners’ digital citizenship at the Open University (UK). Reference Librarian, Vol 59 (3), pp 129-133.
There are two main ways to find the full text of a journal article from a reference:
to access full text
When you find an article you would like to use in your piece of the work, the reference details can be found in the following way:
If you are looking for a specific journal, access a full A-Z list of all subscribed journals below.
Many journal articles are now freely available online as they have been published "open access" in addition to their publication in a subscription journal.
You can use the following search tools to find open access journal articles:
If the item you would like to read is not available via Aston University Library, you can request the item from another Library. This is called Inter-library Loan. This service is available to all University students and staff.
Aston University is a member of the SCONUL Access reciprocal scheme which allows members to visit and use University libraries in the UK and Ireland. You are eligible to join the scheme if you are
Full Time Undergraduate students are not eligible for SCONUL Access membership, but may be able to use other libraries on a reference only basis under the SCONUL Vacation Access scheme.
Keyword searching is generally what you use when you are first beginning a search. Try to break down your topic or research question into the overall main ideas; these main ideas become simple keywords which you may use to search a Library database. It's useful to keep a keyword list when you are researching a topic. This will help you remember the words you have already tried searching, the combinations you have used, and any new words you noticed in search results that you want to try in your searches later.
Watch this short video to help you improve your search skills:
You can find a range of short online tutorials on our Youtube channel to help you make the most of library resources.