Periodical indexes contain references to articles in magazines and journals and newspapers .
Abstracts or journal abstracts are similar to indexes but have summaries of the articles the reference. Atkins Library has a large number of both printed and electronic indexes and abstracts which you can use for your research. This index can be used for most research topics. It includes references from academic journals covering most subjects. For articles in magazines , the printed index which is used the most is a general index called Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature .