Journals are regular (serial) publications that publish the outcome of original research and are aimed at other researchers or practitioners. They can be general covering economics as a discipline, or focus on a specific topic.
Journal articles are essays that present new research, or discuss new developments in the field. As such, they focus on in depth analysis of specific issues.
Journal articles undergo peer-review, which is a process of review by experts in the field (peers). It is aimed at validating the research prior to publication of an article, ensuring quality, originality, contribution to the knowledge base, and authority in a research article.
Working papers and pre-prints are pre-publication journal articles and book chapters. They are published early to disseminate research and generate discussion. Working papers may undergo revision and therefore have different versions. Working papers and pre-prints have not undergone peer review.
Journals and journal articles can be found using Library Search, however it does not discover content, so journal or bibliographic databases are preferred for advanced literature searching.
Journal databases index and abstract articles in specific journals. Some are general and index journals across a range of disciplines, and others are subject specific and index only philosophy, politics or economics journals.
Journal databases are not always full-text: some will include the full-text article, but others will provide an abstract (summary) only. If journal articles are not available, the library has a document supply service.
Some journal databases provide citation information, which allows researcher to measure the usage and impact of articles in their research field, and to find related academic literature. Citation databases can be useful, but they are general in scope, and do not index a wide range of social science journals.
Scopus
Indexes 25,000+ worldwide, peer reviewed journals and conference papers from 1970. Includes citations to measure impact and find related literature. Focus on sciences but also covers arts, humanities and social sciences.
Web of Science
Indexes 22,000+ worldwide, peer reviewed journals and conference papers from 1900. Includes citations to measure impact and find related literature. Focus on sciences, but also covers arts, humanities and social sciences.
PhilPapers
An index of research literature in philosophy including 2,800,000+ journal articles, books and open access archives. Also includes a structured bibliography of 5,000+ topics in philosophy, and a current awareness service alerting researchers to new publications.
Philosopher's Index
Index to scholarly research on philosophy from 1940 to date, including books and articles from 680+ philosophy journals. Published by the Philosopher's Information Centre.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Indexes 2,500 worldwide political science (and related subjects) journals, books and dissertations from 1975. Includes economics, environment, government, international relations, military, law and religion.
International Political Science Abstract
Index to scholarly journal articles on political science published from 1989 to date. Includes political science, political sociology, political psychology, international relations, international law, human rights, conflict studies, ethnic studies and other related fields.
ABI/INFORM Global
Indexes business, economics, finance and management journals and newspapers. Includes selected full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, conference papers, country and market reports.
Business Source Ultimate
Indexes business, economics, finance, management and marketing journals. Includes selected full-text journal articles, case studies, country and company reports.
EconLit
Indexes 1,000+ economics and finance journals, working papers, dissertations and books using Journal of Economic Literature classification scheme. Includes full-text articles from over 600 journals, including American Economic Association titles.
Library databases will often show a link to the PDF or full text of the article which you can download or print. However, there may be occasions where the full text is not available from within the particular database you are searching
In this case you will need to click on the WebBridge link or icon 
WebBridge searches across our other databases and subscriptions to try and locate the article for you. Our finding full text guide 
shows you how WebBridge works
For items not available in the library, use our document supply service.
Request articles, books and chapters for your research.
Order new books, borrow inter-library loans, digitise articles and chapters, request postal loans.