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Biological Sciences Library Guide: Journals & Articles

How to find information at UCT Libraries - a library guide for biological science students and academics at UCT.

Journal FAQ's

What is a journal?

A journal is like an academic magazine where researchers have written articles about their research findings.

 

What is the difference between a book and a journal article?

A book is a longer, and a usually more comprehensive text on a subject.

Journal articles are shorter, and more focused on specific topic. They are published more frequently and so have more up-to-date information than books do.

 

Why use journals?

  • They are usually more up to date than books.
  • As most of them have been checked by other peer researchers (i.e. peer reviewed), they are more reliable than general web articles and newspaper articles.
  • They are shorter to read than books.

Journals at UCT Libraries

At UCT Libraries we have journals in both print and electronic format. To find journals, use Journal Search in Primo.

 

Print journal collection are physically housed in three different areas.

  • Current journals are in low shelves at Research Wing, Jagger Level 6.
  • Older journals published after the year 1965 are housed in the basement in compact shelves, at Immelmann Level 2 and Level 1.
  • Journals published in 1965 and before 1965, they are stored in a remote location. To access one of the journal volumes, please request at the counter or issuing desk. Note that there will be a waiting time of 24hrs. However, if you would like to access just a single article, please send a request to your librarian.

 

Electronic journals are available in subscribed databases and all are searchable via Journal Search in Primo. Remember to search for the journal title, and not the article title. Online access coverage information of a subscribed journal is reflected in Primo record of it and its articles.

Journal Search

Search for a journal title of your interest or its ISSN number

How to identify predatory publishers

  • How to evaluate requests for journal article submissions
  • What to consider when choosing where to publish
  • How to judge the quality of a journal for unethical publishing practices

Find the full article from 'How to Identify Predatory Publishers' page at UCT Libraries website.

DHET Accredited Journal's List

2025 DHET Accredited Journals List

2024 DHET Accredited Journals List

 

Journals included in the UCT's Read & Publish Transformative Agreement with Publisher's

This agreement allows UCT researchers to publish Open Access articles on a selected journals without paying Article Processing Charges. There are conditions to benefit from this agreement and that includes:

  • the corresponding author who submits the manuscript needs to be current staff member of UCT or registered student when the publication got accepted
  • when you submit the application, use your UCT email 

 2025 List of journals included in the UCT Read & Publish Agreement with Publishers (Excel spreadsheet)

The spreadsheet have worksheets dedicated to each publisher.
The all combined worksheet have all included journals listed.
Please note the colour codes in the spreadsheet.

  • A journal entry or row that is not highlighted by colour, is 100% free of Article Processing Charges (APCs).
  • If highlighted with yellow, the agreement just allowed a discount. This means you would still have to pay the rest.
  • If highlighted with red, then the journal do not covered by the agreement.

If the journal that you are considering to publish in is not covered by the Read & Publish agreement and you still want to publish open access, UCT have a Research Publication Grant on a first come first serve basis. You can apply to this fund after you publication is accepted and this is managed by UCT Research Support Hub (Research Office). 

How to find a SPECIFIC journal title or article

This presentation demonstrates how to find a specific journal title or article in Primo.

Click here to go directly to the Journal Search.