Key subject collections

Databases provide searchable collections of articles or papers, reports and other information from academic and scholarly journals and sources, use them to search on a specific topic.

Although a particular database may not contain the full article, the Library often has access to the full article. Go to the Library Catalogue and search by the journal name not the article title, listed on the database record. Once in the journal, type or copy and paste the beginning of the article title into the journal search box.



Most important databases for your studies = ★

These give bibliographic references and short summaries of individual journal articles and the full text to many of the articles themselves.

  • Academic Search Complete 
    Journals from all subject areas, including science. However, access to the current year is not available for many journals.

  • American Chemical Society online journal and archive package
    Access to the full text of peer-reviewed research journals in chemistry and related areas such as biochemistry from the ACS. Browse or search using topic keywords.

  • American Society for Microbiology (ASM) ★
    Full text of top peer-reviewed journals relevant to applied biological, biomedical and blood sciences, covering microbiology, immunology, chemotherapy, bacteriology, cell biology, molecular and cellular biology and virology.

    Browse individual journals, search in the journal, or search across all the journals by topic keywords – click on ‘Search’ at the top of the ASM webpage. Some relevant titles are:

    Contain peer reviewed research journals in the chemical and related sciences. Browse or search using topic keywords.

  • Oxford Chemistry Primers ★
    Published by Oxford University Press, the Oxford Chemistry Primers are a series of short texts providing accounts of a range of essential topics in chemistry and chemical engineering. They are written for undergraduate study and are invaluable as a source of material commonly presented in lectures. There are 100+ titles in the series.

  • Royal Society of Chemistry Journals Archive 1841 – 2004
    Access to the full text of journals from the Royal Society of
    Chemistry (RSC) in chemistry and related areas up to 2004.

  • Science Direct ★ (publisher Elsevier)
    Database of journal articles in all the subject areas of science, technology and medicine including biomedical sciences. Database also contains some books. Full text articles from 1995 onwards most, though not all are journals.

  • Wiley Online Library ★
    Contains journal articles in all areas of science, including biological and biomedical sciences with full text access to many journals and a few books.

These are comprehensive and international. They give references and detailed abstracts (summaries) of individual journal articles or papers.

  • PubMed ★
    Find millions of references or citations from biomedical literature from MEDLINE and life science journals on all aspects of medicine, health and related subjects.

  • Web of Science (WoS) ★
    Key source for final year undergraduate dissertations, MSc, MPhil/PhD and staff.
    International database which covers world literature in all areas of science.
    In WoS, click on the ‘All Databases’ tab and change to Web of Science™ Core Collection.
  • BMJ Best Practice ★
    Combines the latest research evidence, guidelines and expert opinion on public health/medical topics and presenting it in a step-by-step approach that covers prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.

  • The Cochrane Library
    Covers health, health care and medicine-related issues, and includes systematic reviews and clinical trials.

  • TRIP database ★
    Emphasis on evidence based medicine (EBM) and clinical guidelines and queries for medical topics.
  • BioMed Central
    290 free quality peer-reviewed journals in Biology, Clinical Medicine and Health.

  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)   
    This is a freely available full text online open access journals from all disciplines. Useful for a browse or searching on topics.

  • OMICS International
    700 plus online open access peer, reviewed scholarly journals, 3000 plus conferences in all aspects of science including medical, clinical and pharmaceutical subjects.

  • PLOS
    Peer-reviewed, freely available journals in biosciences and medicine.
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