Ask A Librarian!
Can't find the journal or article your looking for?
Having a hard time searching ACA Journals in general?
Contact your friendly librarians! We can help you find it! We are happy to answer any questions!
Counseling Journals
The journals listed below are ACA (American Counseling Association) and affiliates suggested for research in the Clinical Mental Health program.
List of ACA (American Counseling Association) and Affiliate Journals
Official ACA Journals
ACA Affiliate Journals
Would you like to Search Multiple Journals at the Same Time?
Here is a pre-set search that can help you find the articles that you need!
Search All the ACA Journals and some Affiliated ACA Journals
What about the other ACA Affiliated Journals on Different Databases/Platforms?
Please search those databases individually from the journal list above!
The journals that need to be searched individually are:
These Journal Pages are Confusing! Help!
Have no fear! The interfaces are extremely confusing. You have a lot of searching options and capabilities with these interfaces, but the database companies don't make it easy. Let's discuss some of the key pieces of information and how to search on the journal page.
Here's an example page for the Journal of Counseling & Development
There's a lot of search bars and information here. The information itself is relatively straightforward. On the left side of the screen, there's information regarding the journal contract within the database. We can see under the heading "Full Text", that this database has journal issues from September 1, 1974 to the present. We can also see that there's a 12 month delay, or embargo, on this journal. We can read more about the embargo under the heading "Embargo type". The purpose of an embargo is to prevent the database from supplying current issues of the journal, so that the journal company/association can make money selling their newest issues outright to readers before turning them over to the library database. In this particular case, the journal enforces a year delay from the most current issue. Any issue that was published within the last year will not be available through the database. It's super annoying, but it's a very common practice.
On the right side of the record, you can browse for a specific issue by clicking the respective year of publication.
Searching the journal for articles with specific keywords is less straightforward. There are three different sections of search bars on the page. Each search bar does something different. To search the journal itself, you need to use the very last search bar that's labeled "search within this publication".
The first search "bar" (It's actually three search bars, but they function together. They're used for Boolean searches. You can learn more about Boolean searches HERE) searches ALL the articles within the database. The second search bar searches for journals (not articles) within the database. The third search bar is the one you want, which searches for articles within the specific journal.
Boolean Searching
If you're familiar and comfortable using Boolean Operators, you can use the advanced search bars. It's the best way to search, instead of using the third search bar which defaults to a basic keyword search. Just make sure to check "Journal of Counseling & Development", and then "Add to Search" to only search the journal.
The first search bar is now set to specifically search the journal of interest. You can start your keyword groups in the second search bar, and so forth.
If you're having any issues, please reach out to your friendly neighborhood librarian on the left side of the screen :) We'll help you navigate the confusing landscape of databases and journals!
Publication Finder
Have a journal in mind? Did I leave out an ACA Journal from the list? Need to manually find the journal within a different database? Use Publication Finder to find it!
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