Finding Journal Articles

Looking through issue after issue of a journal title or paging through the index of conference proceedings is one way to find articles on a topic.  To make this search easier, the UT Austin libraries subscribe to a number of online indexes.  

Compendex (Engineering Index) is one of the main indexes for finding engineering related articles and conference papers.  Searching Engineering Index is like looking through the tables of contents of over 4,500 journals and conference proceedings all at once.  For a list of indexes that include information of interest to Engineers see Where to Look for Engineering Information.  A list of all the electronic indexes available to UT Austin students is available on the UTLOL  Databases and Indexes to Articles Web page.

Electronic indexes include thousands of titles and narrowing your search to just those titles you are interested in can be challenging.  A piece of advice - try searching the index for exactly the words you would like to see in an article title as a way to start your search. If you are not having any luck finding information on your topic, do not hesitate to ask a librarian to help you with your search.

Electronic indexes tend to cover recent material.  If you are lucky the indexes you use will cover articles published in the past 20-30 years.  If you are doing a thorough search on a topic, you may need to consult a paper index that covers articles published in earlier years. Please let us know if you need find indexes that cover older material or help selecting the most appropriate index for your topic.