Identify and search within specific journals

When doing research, it can often be helpful to start your search within specific journals that are related to your topic or discipline.

Identify disciplinary journals

• Visit the University of Idaho Library website
• Click Databases A-Z below the search box
• In the drop-down box, scroll to and select Journal Citation Reports
• Click go
• On the new page, click Browse by Journal
• On the new page, click Select Categories
• Scroll down to and check the box for a specific discipline
  • Example: Sociology
• Scroll down and click Submit at the bottom of the page

You can now see a ranked list of journals within a specific discipline. Journals in this list are ranked based on the number of times their articles are cited by other articles.

Confirm if a journal is peer-reviewed

Once you select a journal, you can visit its website to determine whether it is peer-reviewed.

• Within Journal Citation Reports, click the title of a journal
  • Example: Sociology Compass
• Identify the publisher
  • Example: Wiley
• Open a new tab and go to your search engine of choice
• Search for the name of the journal and the publisher
  • Example: Sociology Compass Wiley
• Visit the journal’s website
• Review content such as Aims and Scope, About, Author Guidelines, etc. to determine whether the journal is peer-reviewed
  • Journals may also use terms such as refereed, single-blind review, double-blind review, etc. as synonyms for peer-review

Find a journal in the library catalog

Once we find a list of disciplinary journals and identify one you are interested in, we need to see if the University of Idaho Library has full-text access to articles.

• Visit the University of Idaho Library website
• Click Journals below the search box
• On the new page, type the journal name into the search box
  • Example: Sociology Compass
• Click go or hit enter your keyboard
• On the new page, click the journal title that provides Online Access
• Under View It, click the link that provides the access you need (current/historic articles)
• Enter your Vandal NetID if prompted

Search within a specific journal

• Complete the ‘Find a journal’ steps
• On the new page, type your keywords into the search box
  • Example: vaccines AND opinions AND trust
    • Visit the search syntax page to learn more about AND
• If prompted, select the option to search in This Journal only
• Click search or hit enter on your keyboard
• Browse the results
• Click an article you are interested in
• Read the article online or download the PDF

If we don’t have the full-text of an article you need, request it for free via Interlibrary Loan.