How do I find periodical articles?
Periodicals are publications published on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly,etc.) such as journals, magazines, or newspapers.
Indexes are finding tools for periodical articles.
- The primary advantage of an index is the ability to search by subject.
- Indexes may be in either paper or electronic format.
- Electronic periodical indexes are called "research databases" in this library.
- Some contain the full text of articles.
When a citation is available:
A citation provides identifying information about an article (author, title, publication, publication date, volume, number, pages, etc.) With a citation for an article in hand, the goal is to determine whether the library owns, the publication in which the article appeared.
- Use the Periodical List to determine whether the library purchases the publication in paper format.
- Check the title lists provided by the research databases to determine whether the article is available in electronic format in this library.
- If the article is not available in this library, it might be available in another local library. Check the periodical lists of other local libraries if you want to obtain the article quickly.
- Some articles may be available on the Internet in an archive on the site for the publication. There may be a fee for these articles.
- Rather than pay a fee for any article, use Interlibrary Loan to request any article for which you have a citation for free.
Subject searching (no citation available):
When no citation is available, the goal is to find a citation for an article on a particular topic.
- Use a research database or an index when searching for articles by subject, or when only the title and/or author of an article are known.
- Determine which database or index to use based on the subject of the article and the date of publication. General databases will include multiple subjects.
- Because databases may not index older articles, it is important to select the finding tool based on both its dates of coverage and the subject.
- This library is no longer purchasing paper indexes. Look for citations and articles from the 1980's onward in the databases.
- Some of the historical databases index historical periodicals.
- Once a citation is located, if the full text is not available in the database you searched, follow the steps listed above to get the article.
Searching databases
- Efficient database searching is a skill that can be learned--read the Help screens to improve your searching skills.
- The databases have many features that assist with narrowing the search to only the most relevant articles.
- Reading only the most relevant articles saves valuable time.
- If the search results in over 50 "hits", try some of the strategies suggested in the Help information for narrowing the search.
For additional information about finding periodical articles and searching databases efficiently, contact a Reference Librarian at the Reference Desk or at (413) 774-1509.
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