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 does have 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 (numerous publishers)
    All subject areas, including science, however access to the current year is not available for many journals.

  • American Chemical Society (ACS) ★
    Full text of peer-reviewed research journals in chemistry and related topics including forensic chemistry. Browse or search using topic keywords. Some relevant titles are: Journal of the American Chemical Society and Analytical Chemistry.

  • American Society for Microbiology (ASM) ★
    Full text of top peer reviewed journals relevant to applied biological and biomedical sciences including forensic science, microbiology, bacteriology, cell biology and virology. Click on ‘Search’ at the top of the ASM webpage. Some relevant titles are: Journal of Bacteriology; Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Journal of Virology.

  • 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. Database also has some books. Full text articles from 1995- (most though not all journals).

  • Wiley Online Library ★
    Database of journal articles in all areas of science, including biological and biomedical sciences. Full text access to many journals but few books.

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

  • PubMed ★
    International database of millions of references or citations for biomedical and life sciences journals. Includes Medline.

  • Web of Science (WoS) ★
    Key source for all final year undergraduate dissertations, MSc, MPhil/PhD and staff. International database which covers world literature in all areas of science.
    Once signed in, click on the ‘All Databases’ tab and change to Web of Science™ Core Collection.
  • BioMed Central
    290 free quality peer-reviewed journals in biology, clinical medicine and health.

  • Bentham Open
    Peer-reviewed journals in science, technology, medicine and social sciences.

  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
    Freely available full-text online journals from all disciplines.

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

  • PLOS
    Peer-reviewed journals in biosciences and medicine.
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