The Bibliographic Citation
The bibliographic citation is the key to finding information. Citations may vary in style and format, but contain basically the same information. Periodical article citations contain (1) the name of the author, (2) the date of publication, (3) the title of the article, (4) the name of the journal, (5) the volume number, (6) the issue number if applicable, and (7) the pages numbers on which the article appears.
For example:
Crooks, G. (1986). Towards a validated analysis of scientific text structure. Applied Linguistics , 7(1), 57-70.
Indexes
Periodical articles cannot be found using the library catalog. The periodicals are listed in the catalog but the articles they contain are not. The most efficient method of locating periodical article citations is to use indexes. These may be either print or electronic and can be searched by author, title, subject or keyword. Some electronic indexes contain full text articles that can be printed, saved, or e-mailed. Print indexes and some electronic ones provide only a citation and perhaps an abstract of the article. In these cases, you must determine whether the library subscribes to the periodical in question. You can consult the list of Millsaps-Wilson Library Periodical Holdings the library Web site. Another method is to search the library catalog by the title of the periodical. Be careful not to confuse the article title and the periodical title. Once you have determined that the library has the periodical, you will need the call number (example: PN/2/C66x) to find its physical location. You will then need the information in the citation (date, volume number, page numbers, etc.) In order to locate the article. If you find that the library does not have the periodical, you can request the article through interlibrary loan (ILL).
Browsing
Another, but much less efficient way to find articles is to browse the tables of contents of periodicals. Again, you can locate periodicals held by the library by consulting the lists that can be accessed from the Web page. Some electronic databases allow you to browse periodicals by title. If you are unsure of the names of appropriate periodicals try searching in the following ways:
Title beginning with the subject ( Biological Bulletin )
Title beginning with "Journal of…" ( Journal of Cell Biology )
Title beginning with "American…" ( American Biology Teacher )
Title beginning with "Quarterly…" ( Quarterly Review of Biology )
