What Do You Mean--Periodical, Journal, Magazine

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN--PERIODICAL, JOURNAL, MAGAZINE, SERIAL?

Periodicals (Librarians call them "serials") come in a variety of styles and are published for a variety of audiences. They offer news, opinion, commentary, scholarly analysis, literary criticism, and reports of research. All periodicals are published at more or less regular intervals, from daily newspapers to semi-annual journals. You must make active choices about the types of periodicals needed for a given research project. Magazines and newspapers may be appropriate for some purposes, journals of opinion for others, but usually the most important sources for research papers are academic journals. NOTE: Many of the different kinds of periodicals require different citation styles.

TYPES & EXAMPLES	AUDIENCE & USE	WATCH FOR	METHOD OF ACCESS
Newspapers: New York Times Times (London) Times Picayune Wall Street Journal Mobile Press Register	Current information; journalists & freelance News stories, features Editorials, Sound-off, Letters to the Editor Texts of speeches, etc. Local or Geographic area focus	Month and Date--Sept. 30, 2008 Section and page numbers--pB25 Editorials, Letters, Sound-Off Sydnicated Columnists	LexisNexis Ebsco's Newspaper Source Proquest's Ethnic NewsWatch Proquest's Newspapers Mobile Register Some newspapers are on the public web
Magazines: Southern Living Working Woman Modern Maturity Personal Computing	Minimal reading level; staff and freelance writers Focused toward specific consumer groups Feature stories, Recipes, tips, how to... Lots of advertising, Personal stories, How-To, Cover Stories, Reviews	Weekly or Monthly Date, Page numbers Sometimes Volume and Issue Lots of ads Brief articles, photos	Local Public Library Ebsco's MasterFile Premier InfoTrac's OneFile InfoTrac's General Reference Center Gold
News Magazines: Time Newsweek Maclean's (Canada)	Nontechnical language Current events, Feature stories, public opinion polls Photographs, graphs, book & movie reviews Lots of advertising	Weekly or Monthly Date, Page numbers Sometimes Volume and Issue # Politics and contemporary issues	InfoTrac's Expanded Academic ASAP InfoTrac's Business Index Ebsco's Academic Search Premier
Popular Magazines of Opinion: New Republic National Review Christian Century Christianity Today	Generally Educated Audience Particular viewpoint or agendaCommentary Editorials Book, movie reviews, interviews News articles with a slant	Weekly or Monthly Date, Page numbers Look like news magazines, but have a particular political, religious,or other ideological bias Columnists	InfoTrac's Expanded Academic ASAP InfoTrac's OneFile InfoTrac's Reference Center Gold Ebsco's Academic Search Premier Ebsco's Masterfile Premier
Professional Trade Journals: Adweek Progressive Grocer Modern Plastics Hardware Age Aviation Week	Written for practitioners Practical articles; how-to, vocational info Current trends and practices Product information and ads Meetings, job ads, personalities	Weekly or Monthly Date, Page numbers Sometimes Volume and Issue # The title usually indicates a profession photos, ads	Ebsco's Business Source Premier Ebsco's Vocational Search Ebsco's MasterFILE Premier LexisNexis
Academic Journals: Psychobiology Journal of Popular Culture Nursing Management Studies in Short Fiction Journal of Marriage and the Family	"Peer-reviewed" or "refereed" Technical language of the field Often non-profit, Reports of original research or thought Literary criticism, Case Studies, Literature reviews, methods, results, discussions Charts, graphs, tech. drawings,	Always year, volume and issue # Sometimes season Usually 4-6 times a year Long articles and bibliographies Difficult language, No advertising, few pictures	InfoTrac's Expanded Academic ASAP (click on "to refereed publications") Ebsco's Academic Search Premier (click on "peer reviewed") Other specific disciplinary indexes like PsycInfo, Science Direct, ACM Digital Library. (see complete alphabetical list under "Articles, Indexes, Databases")

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Jan Sauer.
Last updated: 04/23/2008 js

TYPES & EXAMPLES

AUDIENCE & USE

WATCH FOR

METHOD OF ACCESS