Periodical indexes are tools that allow you to search for periodical articles by topic.

Think about a book index. An index in the back of a nonfiction book lets you look up a specific subject, name, place, or other piece of information, and it directs you to the right page number in the book where the information is located. An index for periodicals works in a similar way; it will direct you to articles in periodicals that contain information on specific topics.

Periodical indexes are primarily available in two formats

· print (paper) format

· electronic format.