Finding Information

Finding journal articles: search an Index

The best index for a particular subject area may be either print or electronic.

GIVEN: an appropriate Index...
SEARCH: the Index for references to journal articles

1. Download the appropriate index/database guide - more
2. Consult the "Search Help" pages for the index.
3. Search the index/database by keyword.
4. Evaluate Index/database record of articles for relevance to your topic - more
5. Check the subject or descriptor fields to identify additional words to add to your list of keywords.

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Index/database record

Each record has enough information (a citation) to identify the article (or paper), and the publication in which you can find it. A citation may include...

• Author and title of the article
• Summary or abstract of the article.
• Journal title - often abbreviated
• Publication date
• Volume and page number

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Journal title abbreviations

Journal titles are often abbreviated in indexes. The full journal title must be used to search for articles.
To decipher a title abbreviation the following tools are useful for:

• Journals across a range of subjects: All that JAS Journal Abbreviation Sources
• Journals indexed via Web of Science: ISI Journal Abbreviations Index
• Journals indexed in Agricola
• Journals indexed in PubMed (Medline)
• Engineering - the INSPEC list of Journals & other serial sources (Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK)

Use JAKE (Jointly Administered Knowledge Environment) to expand journal abbreviations and find which database

• indexes a particular journal
• contains full text of a particular journal

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