Introduction

Finding Periodical Articles

The term periodical is used in libraries to refer to materials that are published periodically: daily, weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, semi-annually. Other terms used to describe such publications are serial, magazine, or journal.

Information often appears in periodicals several years before it appears in books. Periodicals are often the best sources for a contemporary view of a topic.

PERIODICAL INDEXES

Indexes to periodicals are used to locate articles dealing with a particular subject. To carry out an effective and thorough search for articles on your subject, it is important that you identify appropriate indexes on your topic. The following indexes are available in the Myrin Library. The ones with links are available from the Myrin Library homepage.

                    Art Index
                Business Periodicals Index
                ComAbstracts
                Education Index
                ERIC (Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse)
                Expanded Academic Index (InfoTrac)
                Film Literature Index
                Gale Literary Databases
                General Science Index
                Humanities Index
                Index of Economic Articles
                Ingenta
                International Index
                JSTOR
                Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
                MLA Bibliography
                PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service)
                Philosophers' Index
                Physical Education Index
                Project Muse
                PsychInfo

                PubMed
                Readers' Guide
                Science Direct

                SciFinder Scholar
                Social Sciences & Humanities Index
                Social Sciences Index

Each volume of a printed index, and some electronic indexes, contain a list of the periodicals covered. When in doubt about which index to use, consult the list of periodicals to see whether relevant titles are included. Most topics can be found in more than one index.

Some electronic indexes include the full text of at least some of the articles, but some electronic indexes and all of the paper indexes contain only citations.

Some indexes use abbreviations and include a guide to them. It is important to consult those lists to understand the citation because abbreviations vary among the indexes. This is especially important if the periodical title is abbreviated. Even words such as “and, of the, for” are important in locating a periodical issue. It is possible to waste a lot of time by guessing wrong.

For paper indexes, each annual cumulation and each paper supplement requires a separate “look up”. You must be persistent if you want to locate the best materials.

If the topic is restricted by any time limits, use that date as a starting point. Work systematically so you don’t skip any years.

Many computerized indexes list articles in reverse chronological order, with the most recent article first.