Finding Articles

There are several features of periodicals which make them highly useful to scholarly research. These include:

• Frequency of publication
• Currency of information
• Specificity of subject matter
• Brevity of documents

The best method of finding periodical articles relevant to a research topic is to use periodical indexes and abstracts. Periodical indexes list a basic citation describing an individual article. The citation commonly includes the article’s title and author; the name of the periodical where the article appeared; the date, volume, and number of the issue where the article was published; and other information, such as whether the article contains any illustrations or bibliographic references. Indexes may be searchable by subject headings or keywords as well as by other search terms (e.g., author, title, etc.).

Like indexes, periodical abstracts list the citation data the researcher needs to be able to locate useful articles. They also include abstracts, that is, summaries of the articles’ content. Abstracts can prove very helpful to researchers by helping them avoid finding and reading articles that are not centrally related to their topics. Sometimes periodical abstracts are not assigned subject headings but are accessed by using a keyword index. Such an index is made up of natural language terms that appear in the abstracts and are thus descriptive of the content of the articles.

Periodical indexes and abstracts come in both print and electronic formats. The most popular products we carry are:

To learn more about locating full-text articles, the Vick Library has put together a periodical research flowchart for your assistance. And to find out whether a particular periodical is available in or through the Vick Library, follow the Journal, Magazine, & Newspaper search link on the BBC/SWAN catalog. The holdings data specifies if the Library maintains a current subscription and whether back issues are available in bound or microfiche formats.

Periodicals are shelved in alphabetical order by title to the right of the Circulation/Information Desk on the Library's Main Floor. Periodicals on microfiche are located in file drawers on the third floor.

Last Updated: August 14, 2007