The Open Journals Index database contains bibliographic information for journal articles published in the primary professional literature of the communication(s) field. The database can be searched by title word, phrase, or article author. The search system supports full Boolean search logic (AND, OR, NOT, XOR), proximity searching, wildcard searching, and word conflation (which finds alternative forms of words based on common linguistic roots).

The literature included in this database is restricted to first line scholarship published in academic journals that serve the communication discipline. The database is comprehensive. This is important to understand as it is not uncommon for other well known databases of academic articles (including those addressing the communication field's literature) to claim coverage of a huge number of journals, while in fact providing regular and comprehensive coverage of only a much smaller number. Commonly, claims for coverage are inflated by including an occasional article from journals outside the field's primary literature and then listing those other journals as "covered" by the database. This distinction is important because systematic scholarship requires an accurate understanding of what range of materals have been searched when a database has been consulted.

CIOS Open Journals Index database includes all regular articles published in every issue of the journals covered (coverage information). Only book reviews and editorial notes are excluded.

The database is enabled with "Open URL" technology, meaning that if you search the database from a university whose library supports Open URL linking, you will be able to link directly from Journals Index search results to full text of articles for journals to which your library subscribes.