When conducting research on a topic you will often need to find articles in periodical
sources. Periodicals include scholarly journals, popular
magazines, newspapers and other publications that are issued on a regular basis (e.g., weekly). You
can use either print indexes or electronic databases to find article citations.
Print
Indexes are located in the Reference Section of the Library and include both
general and subject specific types. A general index (Readers' Guide to
Periodical Literature) usually covers a broad range of topics and periodical
sources, while a subject index (Art Index) focuses on a narrower range
of topics. When using print indexes you must first look up your subject and
then write
down the full citation for each article. You then locate the article by
searching for the periodical title (e.g., Journal of Accoutancy) in our online
catalog
and checking the holdings information (e.g., 1976-1990) for that title.
You may also find articles by searching the electronic databases available
on our Online Databases page. Some databases (Expanded
Academic Index) cover
a broad range of topics, while others (Health Reference Center) may be limited
to a specific field of inquiry. These databases provide you with article citations,
abstracts (brief summaries), and in some cases the full text of the article.
It is a good idea to bring a floppy disk with you to the Library so that you
can download articles and citations from databases.
Bibliographies and Works Cited lists found at the end of books and articles
are also an excellect source for finding citations related to your topic.
