Journals to Get You Started
A brief list of journals best suited to the needs of students in Physics 2500 and 3870/3880 is given below. These journals were selected for the level and focus of their content. The list below includes the coverage available through the link. Several have much deeper online coverage through a different provider. Check the Electronic Journals Link to see full coverage.
Tip:
Need to find a specific journal?
You can search for a specific journal on the library website. If you need help finding specific journals check out our FAQ on this topic.
- American Journal of Physicsonline from 02/01/1940 to present
- Physics Todayonline from 05/01/1948 to present
- Physics Teacheronline from 04/01/1963 to present
- Scientific Americanonline from 1993 to present
- Science Newsonline from 1997 to present
- Search All These Journals At Once for YOUR Topic!This link will launch a search session in the Ebsco database system, and will default to limit a search to these journals. You just need to enter your key terms in the search boxes!
Want EVEN MORE?
This is trickier, but you ARE Physics Students! This search requires you to enter a string in the advanced search screen in Scopus, but you will be able to search further back into the literature.
Go to Scopus
Click on the Advanced link near the top and enter the search below:
( ISSN ( 0002-9505 OR 1943-2909 ) OR ISSN ( 0031-9228 OR 1945-0699 ) OR ISSN ( 1946-7087 OR 0036-8733 ) OR ISSN ( 0036-8423 OR 1943-0930 ) )
Major Publishers of Physics Journals
The Merrill-Cazier Library provides access to journals from the major publishers of physics journals, including:
- American Institute of PhysicsAIP is a not for profit agency that publishes some of the leading journals in physics. This link takes you to a page that provides the impact factors for the AIP journals as well as access to links to the journals.
- American Physical SocietyThis is the world's second largest organization of physicists and this group publishes some of the most respected journals in the field. This link provides access to Physical Review, Physical Review Letters, and other APS journals, including a deep archive.
- IEEE/IET Electronic Library (IEL)Full text journals, proceedings, and standards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Coverage goes back to 1988.
- ElsevierAs a leading publisher in the sciences, Elsevier publishers about 175 journals in the field of physics. Merrill-Cazier Library has access to most of the current issues through the Science Direct Freedom Collection.
- SpringerThey offer 167 journals in Physics and Astronomy. Merrill-Cazier library has access to most of the current issues through joint purchase with the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA).
The Classic Books
You can find great recommendations for books from your faculty members or reputable lists:
John Baez. a mathematical physicist at UC Riverside hosts a physics booklist list from "sci.physics participants as the "standard" or "classic" texts on a wide variety of topics of general interest to physicists and physics students."
Susan Flower has a site "So You Want to Learn Physics" that provides a list of the textbooks she used to teach herself physics, in case you are looking for another source on a topic.
Journal and Pre-Print Archives
A pioneer that contributed to the establishment of the open access movement, arXiv.org was originally started in 1991 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Initially limited to physics, it has since expanded to include physics, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear science, quantitative biology, and statistics. Researchers often upload their papers to the archive prior to their publication in peer-reviewed journals. It contains over 500,000 articles.
Now hosted at Cornell University Library, the archive continues to grow and is supported by a number of on institutions, including Utah State University Libraries. This can be a great place to search since you'll find the full text of the articles within the database.
Reference Sources
Sources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and manuals gather known information on topics and present it in concise manner. If you need to find out basic background information on a topic, an encyclopedia is a great place to go (often an excellent place to start research). Properties of materials and procedures are examples of information found in handbooks and manuals.
USU Libraries Encyclopedias and Dictionaries (here are some general sources; there are specialized ones as well listed in the library catalog
Wikipedia. a good resource to get background information, but corroborate it with other sources and be careful using it as a source in a research paper (check with your instructor); using the sources in articles can be helpful
To find reference sources in the library catalog, use the Advanced Search. Put the subject area you are interested in within the first box, and then in the next box put encyclopedia or dictionary or handbook or manual. (If looking for a manual or handbook, you can change the search from Any Field to Subject for a more precise search.)
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