Full Text Linking
British Periodicals is a source for inbound OpenURL referrals and all contents and functional pages feature durable URLs, using OpenURL syntax.
Federated Searching
British Periodicals supports both z39.50 and XML Gateway mechanisms.
Metadata Standards
The British Periodicals metadata specification is essentially an extended version of the Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) metadata specification and includes information from article source (Author, Article Title, Journal Title, Journal Editor, Volume, Issue, Date, Pagination, Place of Publication), the Frequency of Publication of the periodicals included, the Content Type of particular articles (allowing users to search for Advertisements, Articles, Poems, Reviews, etc), and the presence within each article of graphic elements (Cartoons, Maps, Printed Music etc). The metadata also includes Journal Subject indexing (using Library of Congress Subject Headings).
Marc Records
Bibliographic records are available free of charge, in MARC21 (Machine-Readable Cataloguing) format, for the journals included in British Periodicals. These can be loaded into catalogue systems and contain durable links (in the 856) field to journal record pages in the database.
Search Options
British Periodicals has a range of search options. The Home Page has a one-box quick search option which allows users to search keywords from Article Title and Text, Article Author, Article Title or Journal Title. The quick search feature is available on every page of the site, making it possible to search the complete collection quickly and efficiently.
A more detailed "Article Search" screen offers further options, including:
- Select from a List
- Include Wellesley attributions (in institutions that have access to ProQuest's electronic edition of the Wellesley Index)
- Limit results by content types such as obituaries, advertisements, poems, recipes, graphics, letters, reviews and more
- Limit results by frequency of publication
- Narrow date selections
- Sort results by relevance, alphabetically or chronologically
The Search Results display allows users to filter results according to the following criteria:
- Journal Title
- Journal Subject
- Date
- Frequency of publication
- Journal Editor
- Article Type
It's possible to browse for journals in British Periodicals by title or to search for Journal Records by Title, Editor, Subject, Frequency of Publication, Date of Publication, and / or Place of Publication, using the Search Journal Records screen.
Post Search Options
Search History and Market Lists allow users to review and combine searches during a session and mark up results of interest for exporting, saving and printing.
A My Archive feature allows users to save searches between visits in a personal, password-protected area.
Citations can be downloaded and emailed in various formats. Citations can also be exported directly to RefWorks, ProCite, EndNote and Reference Manager.
Usage Statistics
British Periodicals offers both product-specific reports and COUNTER-compliant usage reports.
Authentication
Federated access management via the UK Access Management Federation, ATHENS.
Accessibility
Compliant with W3C Priority 1, some compliance with Priorities 2 and 3.