Advantages of a Journal Directory
A journal directory refers to a searchable assortment of journals usually organized to model a certain facet of an application. It is a web index where one is able to use to find journal articles quickly on a particular topic through use of indexing and abstracting services on the internet. A journal directory is an assortment of knowledge – in this case journal articles, arranged as individual records which might be searched by a laptop. Some journal directories additionally embody conference papers, reports, dissertations, and other types of information. Journal directories collect along articles in a subject area. The topic could be generic or more narrowly outlined.
These directories allow the search for articles using keywords. Keywords can be combined into phrases – meaningful or otherwise – to focus the search into seeking out articles which are most relevant to a particular topic. Journal directories typically give a reference or citation to permit a user to seek out the article. The citation would ordinarily include the title of the article, the author of the article, the journal name, volume and issue numbers, pages and dates, subject headings and sometimes a summary of the article. At times the full text of the article is also available.
Subject specific directories will normally index the main academic literature of the subject area. Articles indexed on the directories are likely to contain additional, more thoroughly researched and reliable information than material otherwise provided by search engines. Search engines are normally an excellent source of information about companies, latest news and current affairs, government departments, and a whole lot more. However, a web search also produces a lot of irrelevant and uncorroborated information. The library databases, which can be useful, are available solely by subscription. It will be easier to seek out a group of articles directly relevant to an assignment by looking up a proper journal directory instead of surfing the Web. In contrast to the Web, directories are well indexed – someone has checked each article and provided subject headings for it. The subject headings and keywords are extremely useful in locating the relevant articles and journals.
There are several web journal directories. Although the number of Indian journal directories are relatively few at the moment, more and more are coming up which is an encouraging sign for the academic community. www.journalsdirectory.in is one such initiative that has been recently undertaken. There are others coming up too. Hopefully the trend continues and more such India specific journal directories make themselves available to the Indian academic community.