FIRST YEAR WRITING:
GUIDE TO FINDING ARTICLES
What is a PERIODICAL INDEX?
A PERIODICAL INDEX is a RESEARCH TOOL that allows you to quickly search thousands of published articles. Use it to search the contents of PERIODICALS (another name for magazines, journals, serials or newspapers), by subject, author, article title, or journal title.Indexes may be general or limited to a specific topic or time period. Beside subject content, check what PUBLICATION TYPES (books, periodicals, journal articles, dissertations, etc.) an index includes. Some indexes allow you to limit your search results to scholarly journals or full text.
Where do I find INDEXES?
The University Libraries have subscriptions to online periodical and image indexes in a range of subjects and time periods. You can use them if you attend or work for the university.
- Go to http://library.uarts.edu
- Select RESEARCH TOOLS & RESOURCES. You will see a list
- To find out more, select View Databases by Type or View Databases by Subject
- To access an index, click on its name.
- If you are off-campus, select 'What if I am not on campus?'
Do ALL online indexes LOOK ALIKE?
No, each publisher creates a different interface. However, they all
- share basic search components such as fields and records.
- employ search conventions such as browsing, Boolean Logic and controlled vocabulary.
- use interactive structures such as search boxes, buttons and pull-down menus.
- have their own HELP feature to assist you.
For help in selecting which one to use, read the descriptions.
What will my SEARCH RESULTS look like?
They will be in citation form. Here is an example of a scholarly journal article citation:
Kelly, K. A Brief Measure of Creativity Among College Students. College Student Journal v. 38 no. 4 (Dec 2004) p. 594-6.
- A CITATION gives you the information you need to find the actual article: author, article title, journal title, volume number, date and page numbers. Most indexes will allow you to e-mail or print your list of citations.
- Your search results in a periodical index are NOT WEB SITES,
they are articles that were actually printed and published in newspapers and journals.
Where do I LOCATE the magazines that contain the ARTICLES?
Once you have a list of relevant citations from your search, the next step is to locate the magazines (journals, periodicals, serials) or newspapers.
- The FIRST place to look for an article is the index you are using. Some offer the option FULL TEXT which means there is a link from the full citation to the entire article online.
- The SECOND place to look is at the periodical collection in the university libraries. Do a TITLE search for the journal title (not article title) in the LIBRARY CATALOG.
- If we do not have what you are looking for, other libraries in this area may. Most library catalogs are accessible on the web. Check out http://www.uarts.edu/stuserv/libraries/resources/philalibraries.html.
If a library is too far away, use INTERLIBRARY LOAN. Interlibrary loan is a service for requesting books and articles from other libraries. It takes 2 weeks on average.
- The SECOND place to look is at the periodical collection in the university libraries. Do a TITLE search for the journal title (not article title) in the LIBRARY CATALOG.