Indexes are databases which can assist in locating journal literature without having to browse through print copies to find relevant articles. Some indexes include conference papers and book chapters. Indexes often cover specialist areas, and rarely include full text, although sometimes link to databases which do have a full text component.

Your search will return a list of results, or records. In most cases, the records retrieved from a search will only show a citation. That is,

• the author of the article
• the title of the article
• the journal publication in which you can find it

Most indexes also include an abstract, or short summary of the article.