Library catalogs and directories such as Ulrichs are helpful in identifying specific periodical titles, but they do not help identify individual articles. Finding Articles with Periodical Indexes To find information inside a book, you would look at the book's index. Searching through stacks of individual periodicals for the information you need would be impractical, and most periodicals don't have a single index to help you find information. To help researchers find articles, there are companies that produce indexes to periodical literature. These indexes typically cover many different periodical publications.
Some indexes are general in nature, while others focus on a particular discipline or area of study.
This unit of information that identifies the article is called a citation . Although all periodical indexes share the same function, different indexes work slightly differently. The content of periodical indexes also varies. Some are intended to cover general subjects while others specialize in one field such as science or education. Some indexes include only newspapers, some cover popular magazines, some cover journals and some represent a combination.