LSU Libraries User Instruction
Finding Periodical Articles

Search Techniques for Journal Indexes

All of the journal indexes are made by various commercial companies and each company has developed their own interface, search capabilities, and designated search terms. This means that each index looks and works differently from the others. It can be frustrating to library users but once you learn the basic methods of index searching you'll have an easy time using any journal index. Here are some general guidelines to help you out.

1. Use keyword searching instead of subject searching.
Each index has chosen its own set of predetermined subject headings. Unless you familiarize yourself with the preferred vocabulary of the index you're using, you're better off doing a keyword search.

2. Learn your index's search commands.
Each index also has chosen its own search symbols. Read the index's help file to figure out which symbols to use for truncation, phrase searching, adjacency (proximity) searching, etc.

3. Try the advanced search mode.
Most indexes have an advanced search mode which allows you to specify things like what dates, languages, and specific journals you'd like to search.

4. Choose more citations than you need.
Remember, these indexes are made by commercial companies and index thousands of journals. The LSU Libraries (or any library for that matter!) do not own every single journal listed in the journal indexes.

5. Don't limit yourself to the full-text indexes.
Full-text indexes are very convenient but they only index a fraction of the journals in any field.


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