Two Types of Article Indexes

Like you learned in Module 1 that there are general and subject encyclopedias, there are also general and subject article indexesA list of topics referring to a document; can be found in electronic or print formats. Both have value, depending on what you are searching for. To determine if you need a general article index, consider the following questions:

  •  Is your topic general or cross-disciplinary?
  •  Is your topic currently in the news?
  •  Do you need background on your topic?
  •  Are you able to use more popular sources in your research?
If so, start with one of the general article indexes.

General Article Indexes

General article indexes cover a wide range of subjects and often index a mixture of popular and scholarly sources. This is often a good place to begin research. Examples of general indexes and the kinds of articles they identify are:

Academic Search Elite
Academic Search Elite, an EBSCOhost database, covers virtually every area of academic study and contains full text for more than 2,000 journals.
Wilson Web Readers Guide
Readers' Guide Full Text, a Wilson Web database, indexes and abstracts from more than 400 popular journals. Some are available in full text.
ProQuest ProQuest Newspapers provides the Full text of 300+ state, U.S. and international news sources.
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