Periodical Index

The periodical index is one type of library databases that will point you to articles published in magazines, journals, and newspapers. We will concentrate on this type of database for the next few pages.

Periodical indexes, or periodical databases, allow you to search for citations to articles in popular magazines and scholarly journals. Sometimes these indexes have complete or "full text" articles as well. Indexes cover all sorts of subjects. If you start with a general index you will find articles about new trends, opinions, and information for the non-specialist. You may be familiar with the general indexes called EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier or ProQuest Research Library. Periodical indexes are one of the best sources to use when writing a research paper.

When you search a periodical index you will always get a citation, which includes the article author, article title, magazine or journal title, and date.