Skip to Main Content

Online and Distance Learning at QMU: Databases and journals

This guide is designed to support students on QMU programmes who study entirely or mainly online, including students on international collaborations programmes. It provides information about how to access library resources online, and other important info

QMU Library is the best way to access journal articles. It subscribes to a huge number of journals that your lecturers and academics will have identified as being relevant to your course. 

The quickest way to access these is via QMU’s Discover service, which is a powerful search tool giving you access to the resources QMU subscribes to. However, in the later stages of undergraduate programmes and at postgraduate level you are expected to find academic texts through searching subject specific databases and individual journals, to ensure you are reading widely and have a solid awareness of the breadth of what is being written and published about.

Subject databases

You can view a full list of the subject databases that QMU Library subscribes to on the Databases A-Z list.

For a list of recommended subject databases for your subject area, see the Databases tab on the relevant QMU Library Subject Guide.

Individual journals

You can view a full list of the academic journals that QMU Library subscribes to on the ejournals A-Z list.

For a list of recommended academic journals for your subject area, see the Journals tab on the relevant QMU Library Subject Guide.

Logging in

You will often need to log in to access the full text of journal articles or ebooks.

To do this, find the option to log in via your institution and choose Queen Margaret University. This will look different on different ebook, journal and database platforms. For example, on the Taylor and Francis journals website it looks like the image below. You should click 'Access through your institution' and do not try to log in with your email and password in the boxes you can see initially.

A screenshot of a login page

Instead, enter Queen Margaret University in the box indicated:

A box that prompts the user to enter their institution

You will be taken to the Shibboleth login page, where you need to enter your QMU username and password:

A box that prompts the user to enter their username and password

You can avoid having to log into different platforms by using remote access - please see the relevant page on this guide for more information.