WR 227 Introduction to Technical Writing: Science and Technology Magazines
Science Magazines and Journals
While there are literally thousands of science magazines and journals, here is a list of high quality publications intended for a general audience. The virtue of these publications is clear writing that describes or reports on a topic in very accessible ways not laden with extremely technical language. Articles in these publications can provide excellent grounding on a topic. Additionally they can be very good sources for keeping up on current developments and trends in a discipline.
Science NewsPublished biweekly by the magazine of the Society for Science & the Public. The society also publishes news stories, blogs, editorials on its online site.
New ScientistPublished weekly, covers science and technology news and features.
Scientific AmericanPublished monthly, Scientific American provides insights on and reporting of developments in science and technology.
SciencePublished weekly by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science is one of the primary journals in science reporting both news and research studies.
NatureNature is a weekly international journal publishing peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology. Nature also provides news and interpretation of topical and coming trends affecting science, scientists and the wider public.
ENREngineering News Record provides the engineering and construction news, analysis, and commentary.
Communications of the ACMPublished monthly by the Association for Computing Machinery, provides in-depth stories of emerging areas of computer science, new trends in IT, and practical research applications.
Databases
The Library subscribes to multiple science and technology databases. Databases exist to help you identify articles on topics within their subject scope. You can review the comprehensive listing of the Library's databases.
Selected databases of interest for technical writers are listed below.
- Business Source Premier
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Provides full text and citations to articles in various business publications; also includes company profiles, industry profiles, and country information. - ACM Digital LibraryIncludes citations and full text articles from the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) journals, newsletters, and conference proceedings. content from 1951-2000 is readily available to everyone regardless of PSU affiliation.
- Environment CompleteProvides full text journals, books, and reference works that cover agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine and freshwater science, geography, pollution and waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts along with urban planning.
Get Full Text with Find It @ PSU
If the article citation does not include links to the full text, click on the Find it @ PSU button to check availability. Find it @ PSU is the link to the full text (online or print), that leads to the full text will appear under View Online. If it is not available, there will be an option to request the article from Interlibrary Loan & Article Delivery.
If you have an article citation...
You can use an article citation to get the full text.
Ex.: Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1182
Option 1:
Search the PSU Library using the article title as your search:
Option 2:
Enter the article title in Google Scholar, then click on Find it @ PSU:
Then...
Both methods provide links to the full text article, using the link under online access:
Not available?
Try searching for the journal and then searching or browsing for the article. If the Library does not have access to the volume of the journal needed, submit an article request via Interlibrary Loan.
