When doing research for a paper, your challenge will be to find articles that have been written on a particular topic. These articles come from magazines, journals and newspapers, which are collectively referred to as "periodicals" or "serials".
To find articles in either our print or electronic periodicals, it's best to use a periodical index.
A periodical index is a type of database. Each entry or record in the database includes citation information about an article: title, author, abstract, periodical title, etc. Periodical indexes include citations for articles from many sources. When you search one periodical index, you are usually searching the contents of hundreds and perhaps thousands of periodicals simultaneously.
1. Select an appropriate index
2. Find article citations
3. Find the full-text of the article
There are a wide variety of periodical databases available. Each year, the Library decides which ones offer the best content to meet the needs of students and faculty. Some periodical databases try to be more general in nature and include periodicals on a wide variety of topics. This means they have fewer journals for a given subject, but cover many subjects (e.g. Academic Search Premier). Other periodical databases cover one subject area in-depth and therefore offer coverage of more journals in that subject area (e.g. Criminal Justice Abstracts).
Often, key journals, magazines and newspapers that you need are NOT all included in the same index. This is why we subscribe to more than one index on the same subject. Therefore, you will need to use more than one index in your research to ensure that you haven't missed a key article.
There are two tools available on the library website to help you select a database for your research topic.
Subject Guides
Alphabetical List of Periodical Indexes and Databases
Each database is slightly different, so read the onscreen instructions for help constructing a search. Enter your keywords in the search box, select any appropriate limiters (e.g. date) and click "search". For more information on building your search strategy, see Periodical Database Search Strategies.
You will see a results list, like this one. This is your list of article citations.
Review your citations by clicking on each title to see more information, including an abstract (in most cases).
Once you retrieve a list of article citations (as in the list below), you need to locate an electronic or print copy of the article.
If the index that you are using includes the full text of the article, there will be a link to the article, in either HTML or PDF format.
If the index does not include the full-text of the article, use the alphabetical title list of all periodical titles available at the library to see if the article is available in full-text from another index or database, or in paper format in the library.
If the article is not available in full-text in either paper or electronic format, use an Internet search engine like Google to see if the full-text of an article is available free of charge on a website.
If it's not, and the article is an important source for your research, submit an interlibrary loan request.
For further assistance, please use the Help screens within the index, or contact a member of the Reference Staff at 905.721.3111 x.2390.