PERIODICALS: DEFINITIONS

The use of periodical articles should be an important part of most library research. Depending on your research assignment, you should use different kinds of periodicals. Scholarly and professional journals serve as the major medium for communication in most academic and professional disciplines, and usually include the published findings of original research. They are essential for any major research assignment. Articles from popular magazines and newspapers are useful when you are looking for information about recent events and topics of current interest.

Definitions

The terms serials, periodicals, magazines, and journals are often interchanged, and their distinctions are not always clear.

• Serials is the broadest term for these type of publications. Serials are any publications that are issued in parts over an indefinite time period. They include periodicals but also proceedings, annuals, and irregular publications.
• Periodicals are publications that are issued in frequent regular intervals. They include magazines, journals, and newspapers. The distinction between magazines and journals is small but can be important.
• Generally magazines are considered to be of popular interest.
• Journals are considered to be of scholarly or professional interest.
• Newspapers are really little different from other current event magazines, except that some come out daily, and come in the familiar newsprint format.

Types of Periodicals

There are major differences in types of periodicals. On this chart is a summary of some of the major distinctions among periodicals: Popular/General, Popular/Opinion, Scholarly,and Trade. Others may make fewer or finer distinctions. Supermarket tabloids, for example, may deserve to be isolated in a separate category, but few libraries will have subscriptions to them. I have seen some charts with as many as seven different columns. Not everyone will agree on how to define the categories, or which periodical titles should be considered as examples of a particular type.