Learning Resources: Graphic Design: Databases & Journals

Researching for Assignments

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Journals cover a range of sources, including newspapers; magazines and scholarly journals. News and research around your subject area are usually published first in journals.

A journal can be useful:

to find up-to-date information
to find our what has been researched on your topic
to find information that points to other relevant research

Databases enable you to find journal articles and reports which have been written around your topic. Sometimes they will provide just a summary of the article or a link to the full online article itself.

Combining your search terms with 'AND' will narrow the time your search takes to produce fewer, more specific resources.

Combining your search terms with OR will broaden out your search to include related words and concepts, producing more results.

LRC Smart Search

Useful databases for ...

Applied Science & Technology Full Text This link opens in a new window
Core literature in the applied sciences, this database provides full-text professional and scholarly journals, specialized subject periodicals, directories and conference proceedings.
Includes indexing and abstracts for English-language scientific and technical publications dating back to 1983. It also includes full-text articles dating back to 1990 and page images with original illustrations, charts and photographs.

CORE This link opens in a new window
CORE is a not-for-profit service delivered by The Open University and Jisc. CORE’s mission is to aggregate all open access research outputs from repositories and journals worldwide and make them available to the public. In this way CORE facilitates free unrestricted access to 80M full-text research resources for all

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
A completely customizable general reference solution for learners and librarians. Its full-text, aggregated content covers every major subject from the world's best publishers of reference. A selection of reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesaurus and books of quotations, plus a range of subject-specific titles.

UCLan Library Search This link opens in a new window
A search will retrieve items from the Uclan Library Catalogue and provide access to the full-text of some (but not all) of their electronic resources, databases and journals. An excellent starting point if you are not sure which resource to choose

Helpful Journals

Character Design Quarterly
Character Design Quarterly (CDQ) is an exciting print magazine for illustrators, artists, animators and character art enthusiasts. Releasing four times a year, the magazine offers inspirational and educational articles, tutorials and interviews from top industry professionals specifically geared to helping artists hone their character design skills.
Digital Arts
Digital Arts is magazine for professional Digital designers with focus on valuable techniques, best practices and useful resources. Based in the UK Digital Arts prides itself on providing unbiased product-led information and professional advice, across all platforms and disciplines, providing news, tutorials, reviews, features and guides
Digital Producer Magazine
“Online magazine containing information on Digital Video, Animation, Effects, Imaging and Technology"
Eye Magazine
Eye magazine, the international review of graphic design, is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture. Hardcopy available in Parson’s Walk Library
International Journal of Design
is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to publishing research papers in all fields of design, including industrial design, visual communication design, interface design, animation and game design, architectural design, urban design, and other design related fields. It aims to provide an international forum for the exchange of ideas and findings from researchers across different cultures and encourages research on the impact of cultural factors on design theory and practice. It also seeks to promote the transfer of knowledge between professionals in academia and industry by emphasizing research in which results are of interest or applicable to design practices.
Little White Lies
Little White Lies is a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. The reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience.
Typography Guru
Typography Journal. Articles from the field of typography. The site went online in February 2015 and is an international online community around the fields of typography, lettering and calligraphy. Typography.Guru is a place to discuss, learn and connect

Alphabetical List of Electronic Resources

As well as the individual subject databases listed above, you may wish to access our full list of resources which cover other subject areas.

A-Z Database

Understanding An Article Reference

A correctly formatted reference will tell you exactly where to find the full article:

DING, Y., JACOB, E. K., ZHIXIONG, Z., FOO, S., ERJIA, Y., GEORGE, N. L. and LIJIANG, G. (2009) Perspectives on social tagging, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60 (12), 2388-2401.

This article was written by Y Ding & colleagues, and the article's title is "Perspectives on social tagging". It was published in 2009 in the journal called "Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology". It was published in volume 60, issue 12, and the article ran from page 2388 to 2401.

Graphic Design: Databases & Journals