Periodical Types and Formats

Periodicals – refer to sources that are published ‘periodically’ instead of once [such as a book]

Published multiple times [weekly, monthly, quarterly]

Published once

[unless revised]

Periodicals vs. Books

Periodicals provide a whole range of general, from scholarly and technical information to popular information.

Choosing specific types of periodicals are a requirement for many research assignments in most classes.

Why distinguish periodical types?

Assignments will require different periodical types

Your professor will ask for “‘six references, with 2 magazines, 1 newspaper article, and 3 scholarly journals”

You must be able to differentiate between types of periodicals, not only for this class but for almost any research assignment.

Major types of periodicals:

Newspapers: contain updated information on current news and event.

Magazines: examples include Time and Newsweek, include analyses by reporters,

Scholarly journals: academic and research studies on specific topics.

Trade Journals: trade journals are written for specific professions and fields [i.e., nursing, automotive technology, construction]

Newspapers

•Oftentimes stories in newspapers are recountings of single events

•what happened in the latest political election, or what happened last night in a single police incident.

Magazines

•Magazines usually include analyses of a series of events

•---event leading up to a war, or surveys/data about a political election]

Scholarly Journals

•Journals report on specific studies within specific populations.

•Peer-reviewed (usually)

•Often published quarterly or sometimes twice-yearly

Trade Publications

Often what appear to be journals are actually trade publications in areas like automotive technology, construction technology, etc.

Trade Publication Titles

Trade Publications

•Trade Publications are somewhat tricky: they can look like scholarly publications, but are often formatted like newspapers or magazines.

Trade Journals = practicing professionals

Trade Journals are written for practitioners within a specific field, and should not be confused with scholarly journals

Periodical Types

See links for periodical types:

http://www.tarleton.edu/departments/library/library_module/unit6/6types_lm.html

http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/journals.html (scholarly journals and trade publications)

Print Periodicals

Before databases, most periodical collections were in print format:

RHC Print Periodical Collection

Compare to Electronic Databases

RHC Print collection:

approximately 200 periodical titles

http://library.riohondo.edu/Research_Help/PeriodicalHoldingsList2011_2012.pdf

ProQuest:

over 2200 periodical titles

Academic Search Premier:

4,600 titles, with 3,900 full text

Print Periodicals vs. Electronic Databases

To compare collections in print versus

electronic: Electronic databases replicate the contents of print periodicals They contain many more titles than is possible in print collections

Print Electronic

Print periodicals are always full text

[obvious, when you have a periodical in front of you it contains all articles published with the magazine].

Electronic articles may be full text, or offer only the citation

In that case, you must search out the print copy of the article

However, this is less and less true, as more databases become more comprehensive

Full Text - Electronic and Print Periodicals

Electronic - Full text vs. Citation

ProQuest and other periodical databases offer usually around 60% of their collections full text.

Not ALL results will be full-text. See example from Ebsco:

NOT Full text [citation only]

Full text in HTML and pdf

Electronic - Format Types

PDF

HTML

Electronic - Periodical Types

Periodical databases also distinguish periodical types

ProQuest separates out periodical types

General/Popular Scholarly

Intended for non-expert public

Information not reviewed by experts

Characterized by brief factual reporting

Broad information on topic

Magazines/newspapers

Practitioners, researchers in subject area

Information reviewed by experts

Latest research and scholarship

In depth analysis

Journals/peer-reviewed

Technical, Scholarly, or General? [p. 60-63]