A journal (periodical) is a scholarly publication containing articles written by researchers, academics, practitioners and other experts. Journals usually focus on a specific discipline or field of study. Articles in journals often deal with very specific aspects of topics and in depth. Journals are like magazines: different issues or parts are published at regular intervals and each has the same title. Often each part has a number and all the parts for a year have a volume number. Usually several authors write articles per issue.
Law journals contain articles, comments, case notes and book reviews.
There are about 26 law journals published in South Africa over 40 according to how Sabinet groups journals).
Not all journals or articles are available full text online. There are various ways to access online journals - see the centre column of this page or click on the Databases tab.
Newspapers are also periodicals although generally not scholarly but may be a useful source of information. Most newspapers have online versions. SA media / SA News on Sabinet (choose this option from the Product column on the Sabinet main page) provides scanned newspaper articles from a wide range of South African newspapers going back several decades and the Newspaper gateway provides access to a useful range of newspapers from around the world. Iolnews is a useful online source of South African news. See also the UKZN Library's newspaper page.
UKZN now subscribes to a service called Pressreader which provides access to a large range of newspapers from across the continent and globe. This service provides up to date coverage.
Click on the Databases tab at the top of this page for links to databases containing international journals.
Many academic journals are not freely available via Google or Google Scholar. Libraries pay for access and publishers / vendors put together collections of journals for multiple years in databases. These collections may be country or subject specific or multidisciplinary.
There are different ways to search for journals and journal articles:
1. The icatalogue includes titles of journals as well as articles in journals that are accessible to UKZN staff and students. Use the advanced search option if you want to limit your search to journals. (If an article is not accessible to UKZN you can request a copy electronically via the interlibrary loan facility on icatalogue. You must have a My Library Account to do this. (It is better to check with a subject librarian first in case there is a technical problem or the article is accessible via another means.)
2. Search an academic database by topic, author or journal title. From the toolbar on the UKZN Library homepage, under Resources, select Databases A-Z.
3. Search the journals collection of the Library for a particular journal and / or article where details are known.
4. Search GoogleScholar. GoogleScholar can only provide free access to articles if publishers allow it but where UKZN pays for access to an article, click on the article title to get to the full text.
South African law journals full text can be found in 3 South African databases and 1 overseas database. Nearly all SA law journals used to be accessible on Sabinet but now a considerable number have to be accessed from Juta so if you are searching in Sabinet and cant download, go to Juta.
1. SABINET provides access to South African journal articles in ALL subject areas, including some law journals.
Click on SABINET in the databases list, then from the dropdown menu in the PRODUCT box, click on 'All journals' under the heading Sabinet African journals articles. Many South African journals, law journals in particular are only full text post 2000. If an article is not available, check for the journal on Juta or Lexis.
The following journals are available full text for varying years in Sabinet's African journals: Acta Criminologica; African Human Rights Law Journal; Article 19; Article 40; Business Tax and Company Law Quarterly; Codicillus (open access); Comparative and International Law Journal of SA (CILSA): Constitutional Court Review; Crime Research in SA; De Jure; De Rebus; Fundamina (open access); Journal of Estate Planning Law; Journal for Juridicial Science (Tydskrif vir Regswetenskap - TSAR); Juta's Business Law; Lesotho Law Journal; Malawi Law Journal; Obiter; Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal (PELJ); SA Crime Quarterly; SA Human Rights yearbook; SA Journal of Bioethics and Law (open access); SA Journal on Human Rights; Southern African Public Law; Without Prejudice
2. Juta (2000+): Acta Juridica (AJ); African Human Rights Law Journal; African Journal of Comparative Constitutional Law; African Nazarene University Law Journal; African Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law; CILSA: Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa; Constitutional Court Review; Corporate Report: Facilitating Business in SA; iilwandle zethu: Journal of Ocean Law and Governance in Africa; Industrial Law Journal (ILJ) (Located in the Labour library); Journal of Business Law; Journal of Comparative Law in Africa; Journal of Corporate and Commercial Law and Practice; Juta's Business Law; Juta’s Tax Law Review (under Tax); South African Intellectual Property Law Journal; SADC Law Journal; SA Journal of Criminal Justice (SACJ); South African Journal on Human Rights (SAJHR) (from 2016 SAJHR is available on the database Taylor and Francis); South African Law Journal (SALJ); SA Mercantile Law Journal; South African Yearbook of International Law; Stellenbosch Law Review; Tydskrif vir die Suid Afrikaanse Reg (TSAR)
3. LexisNexis (1996/1998+): De Rebus (1998+); Employment Law Journal (1996+); Income Tax Reporter (1998+); Insurance and Tax Journal (1998+); Property Law Digest (1996+); Tax Alert; Tax Planning Corporate and Personal (1995+); Taxgram (1998+); Tydskrif vir Hedensdaagste Romeins-Hollandse Reg (THRHR). (THRHR has also been digitised by University Pretoria Law Library from 1970-2002 )
Open source
4. The American database Heinonline provides full text access to a range of South African journals from their inception to a couple years ago. Most recent issues not available - full text availability is indicated in brackets below. Searching in Google Scholar will usually link you to Hein versions of articles.
Using iCatalogue
The Department of Higher Education approves South African journals for SAPSE accreditation purposes and also provides links to all accredited lists. These are available from the UKN Research office home page.
This mainly affects postgraduates and researchers: if an article is not available via UKZN and is urgently needed, ask your subject librarian who will request a copy for you - at no charge to yourself if we cannot obtain an item via Interlibrary loan.