where can u get academic journals? Forum

[sangr]

hey guys just wondering where one can obtain academic journals outside of school.

thx

[Jeffort]

Depends on which journals, just search the web. Many of them are available in pdf and other electronic forms.

Start here:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=google

[Tom Joad]

Not to be a jerk, but how did you graduate undergrad without knowing how to find research journals? Or did you just have an easy major that didn't require much research or reading or writing?

[JesusChrist]

ITT, we guess what major OP was. I'm gonna go with media studies.

[510Chicken]

Not to be a jerk, but how did you graduate undergrad without knowing how to find research journals? Or did you just have an easy major that didn't require much research or reading or writing?

Meh. Universities often offer access to online journals/databases through some sort of campus/library connection. Since the OP is outside of school, they might no longer have access to those resources, even if they did extensive research as an undergraduate. It can be hard to simply scrounge up a legit Project Muse/JSTOR/Lexis/SAGE password. Those things are expensive and consequently closely guarded.

[dextermorgan]

Not to be a jerk, but how did you graduate undergrad without knowing how to find research journals? Or did you just have an easy major that didn't require much research or reading or writing?

If he has graduated from UG it is likely that he has lost access to the online databases, and doesn't want to pay per article.

[Tom Joad]

Well I realize all those databases cost money and most UGs probably get on most of them through their university website, but it is the 21st century now. We have Google Scholar.

[icouldbuyu]

Not to be a jerk, but how did you graduate undergrad without knowing how to find research journals? Or did you just have an easy major that didn't require much research or reading or writing?

Well if OP majored in engineering, math, or finance/accounting, OP wouldn't need research journals. I would hardly say those majors are easy. I for one majored in accounting/finance (dual concentration) and never actually used research journals.

[Tom Joad]

Well I probably shouldn't have said that not having to read research articles means a major is easy, but it just seems kind of odd that a person could graduate without having read journals for some kind of class. Every area of study has research, even the fine arts.

[glucose101]

esp someone interested in law, which clearly requires reading/researching/writing. ^

[icouldbuyu]

Well I probably shouldn't have said that not having to read research articles means a major is easy, but it just seems kind of odd that a person could graduate without having read journals for some kind of class. Every area of study has research, even the fine arts.

I know for finance, its not so much reading research as it is current events. Its really vital to at least read the wall street journal and new york/financial times everyday.

[rinkrat19]

Well I probably shouldn't have said that not having to read research articles means a major is easy, but it just seems kind of odd that a person could graduate without having read journals for some kind of class. Every area of study has research, even the fine arts.

I think I used the library at my UG for actual research purposes (besides just group studying in common areas, sleeping in the rotunda between classes, or going to the coffee shop) maybe twice in 5 years.

Engineering major + most of my required core humanities taken care of by AP credit = almost zero research experience.

It's something I'm actually fairly worried about for law school, since I'll be way behind the curve.

[510Chicken]

Just sayin', there are enough reasonable outs and explanations that "How could you possibly not have done _____?" and "What easy major are you?" statements are really unwarranted.

[Bumi]

Allow me to post the first useful links in this entire thread:

http://www.ssrn.com/
http://scholar.google.com/

Incidentally, I would put my UG major up against anyone's for degree of difficulty, but I wouldn't have known how to answer this question as someone not affiliated with a school until a few years ago.

[sangr]

thanks much for the help, for those who helped.

my undergrad difficulty does not really matter to anyone but myself so it won't be necessary to answer that.

thanks for the help/links!

[PhilEconCS]

Even if you're not affiliated with a university, you can still go to the university's library and be able to access academic articles on the university computers that you otherwise wouldn't be able to access on your own. At least that was how I accessed articles in high school when I was trying to get the latest science research papers but didn't have a subscription. Additionally, the university library usually has print copies of a lot of stuff as well.

[aspire2more]

Why didn't I pick a major that didn't require scholarly research? Trying to search for (and understand) journal articles in another language really sucked. There was no help available from the librarians either. Oh well. Live and learn!

[OnlyLivingBoyinNY]

Ya, if you don't live near a university and can't find any in your local bookstore (bookstores will usually carry a token science or foreign policy journal), then I would suggest searching using Google Scholar and seeing if there are any free pdfs you can use. Also, you can look for "working papers," which are (for whatever reason) unpublished academic articles and sometimes free. If they are free, they will be located on personal, university, or NGO/thinktank websites.