Here is a selection of economics journals. Initially, I am providing links only to those journals to which I currently subscribe, so the list reflects my own interests. Over time, I will attempt to add other specialized journals to the list. (I hope that by providing pictures of the covers of these journals, students will better be able to find them in the library.)

Online Literature Resources

By far the most valuable current online resource for learning about what economists do is http://www.webofscience.com (accessible via UCLA IP addresses only). You can search an array of social science journals much more broadly defined than just economics. You can find "related records" for any given paper, that will reveal which other papers cite similar references, and must therefore be on related topics. You can find out how popular different papers have been with subsequent authors by searching citations. There are now (as of 2001) built-in links to the California Digital Library (CDL) so that you frequently need not even visit the library to track down original research papers. It can all be done over the web. (Result: less demand for research assistants by faculty?)

If you want to explore the wealth of research topics addressed by economists in all major journals, going back to 1969, you can search the Econlit database by keyword. Type in any economic topic you can think of and see what you find. The index provides abstracts for most articles. To access this SilverPlatter database, you must be coming in from a UCLA IP (internet) address.

Another place to see what professional economic researchers publish is the JSTOR database. This is limited to a dozen or so journals, and contains searchable full-text articles, although only up until five years ago.