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Bibliographic
indexes and indexing databases
Indexes provide bibliographic references
(and sometimes an abstract) to published literature. They
usually DO NOT provide you with the full-text of the material,
only the bibliographic details.
Commonly, indexes concentrate on specific forms
of publication (e.g. journal articles and conference papers,
official publications, or theses). They are particularly associated
with the process of identifying relevant journal literature:
Indexes are the main tool for comprehensive
identification of the available literature on a topic. They
are frequently used at a research level
If you do not need to do a comprehensive
search of the literature, for convenience, you may wish
to use a full-text service in place of an index (more about
full-text services)
Indexes are increasingly available as keyword-searchable
online databases
In some subjects, only printed versions
of the index are available
The material indexed may not be available
locally (indexes will tell you what has been published
on a topic, not what is available in our Library)
The coverage of an index may be restricted
to broad categories (e .g. sciences, social sciences, or
humanities)
Or it may be very focused on specific disciplines
(e.g. biosciences, history, or psychology)
A full list of indexing databases is available
from the Library's Indexing
and Abstracting Services page. Further, specialised sources
may be listed in the Library Subject
Guide for your department.
Using an index involves a two-step process:
Search the index to identify relevant references
Use the details given in the references to
check for local availability
