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MFT 8302 : Principles of Educational Research: Indices vs Databases

How to Search for Periodical (Journal & Magazine) Articles by Subject

You can find journal and magazine articles by subject in one of two ways:

  1. by using a tool called a Periodical Index
  2. By using a tool called a Journal Database. 

Paper Periodical Indices

Before there were journal databases, there were paper journal indexes.  While they are harder to use than the journal databases, they index the journals and magazines of the past that could still be useful to find articles on your research topic.

Databases

Databases contain large amounts of data.  The data can be in the form of a listing of names, addresses, citations to journals and magazines, or many other kinds of information.  Journal databases are the evolution of the print periodical indices into the digital world, where they are much easier to use.

Advantages of Databases

  • They index more resources
  • They index a wider date range of resources
  • You can perform more complex searches in databases

(see the Individual Databases tab for links to individual databases)

Education Index

Volumes of the Education Index on the second floor of the Library