Why link to a journal?

Generally, folks prefer to link to articles, but here are a few ways you can use journals in your courses:

  • Ask your students to gather research from a particular journal (or journals) that are impactful / important in your discipline.
  • Have students review key journals to get a better idea of the writing style / requirements of the discipline.
  • Create an assignment where students assess one issue from different viewpoints, using journals from multiple disciplines.
  • Need to limit the scope of a research assignment? Choose a particular issue of a journal and ask students to choose their topic from that issue.

Why use the library's journal links?

  • Some journals may have public websites, but the library links will give you greater coverage. For example, you can't access a 2001 article from Nature's website without paying for it. However, the library's online coverage goes back to 1990. 
  • The linking method we describe below actually provides you with a link to all database coverage for a specific journal, meaning:
    • You (and your students) can pick the best database dependent on the date range you're looking for. 
    • If a database is down, you can see which other databases provide access.

How do I find journal links?

  1. From the library homepage, go to Journal / Newspaper Titles

    A screenshot of the Penfield Library homepage, with the journal titles link highlighted

  2. Enter the name of the journal and hit Enter (or click the magnifying glass icon)
  3. If your journal is in the search results, click the journal title
  4. Click Permalink / URL

    A screenshot of a journal information page in Primo

  5. Click Copy the permalink to clipboard!

How do I add journal links to Brightspace?

  1. Once you've copied your link, head to Brightspace.
  2. Navigate to the module you'd like to add the link to. Click Upload / Create, then Create a Link

  3. Put the journal title in the Title field, and paste the journal URL in the URL field.

  4. Click Create - you're done!