Indexes and Abstracts

•      Indexes and Abstracts

Finding Information

•        What is an index?

•        Indexes are usually found at the back of books or journals. An index is an alphabetical list of key information which is in the book or journal and where it may be found within the book or journal i.e. page numbers or issue numbers.

•        Many indexes are now available online.

•        Purpose of Index

•        Purposes

•        Indexes and abstracts are tools for identifying articles in journals. You may also be able to use them to identify book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and other secondary sources.

•        Types of Index

•        There are  two types of indexes: general and specialized.

•        General indexes cover a broad variety of topics and may index popular magazines, newspapers, and some scholarly journals. Specialized indexes cover a specific topic or discipline and will usually index more scholarly journals.

•        General Indexes

•        One drawback of general indexes is that due to the nature of the magazines they include, you may find some less reliable and less informational articles 

•        Specialized Indexes

•        The articles you find are generally more reliable because these indexes tend to include more scholarly journals.

•        What is an Abstract?

•        An abstract is a summary of a journal article, book, or other publication, such as a thesis. Abstracts help you decide whether an item contains information which is relevant to your research. Many online bibliographies and indexes also include abstracts, especially for more recently published material.

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•        Types of Abstracts

•        There are two types of abstracts: informational and descriptive.

•        Informational Abstracts

•        communicate contents of reports

•        include purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions, and recommendations

•        highlight essential points

•        are short—from a paragraph to a page or two, depending upon the length of the report (10% or less of the report)

•        allow readers to decide whether they want to read the report

•        Descriptive Abstracts

•        tell what the report contains

•        include purpose, methods, scope, but NOT results, conclusions, and recommendations

•        are always very short— usually under 100 words

•        introduce subject to readers, who must then read the report to learn study results