Class 6 - Introduction to Periodicals

There is a Ramsey Resources guide on Finding Periodicals in Ramsey Library, but it was written with text (telnet) version of the library catalog in mind. It's concise, portable, and has the essence of what you need to know about periodicals, except for instructions about using the Web version of the catalog.

What are periodicals?

Periodicals are publications that contain a number of articles on various subjects by different authors AND are published at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.). Magazines, journals, and newspapers are different types of periodicals.

What is the difference between periodicals and serials?

Periodicals are sometimes called "serials," but you should know that "serials" is just a broader term than periodicals. All periodicals are serials, publications issued at regular intervals. However, periodicals are generally defined as serials that are published at least 3 times a year. (Granted, this is a useful but arbitrary distinction, and some people may consider 2 times a year sufficient for periodicalhood.) Serials that are not periodicals may be issued semi-annually, annually, biennially, or even quinquennially (every 5 years).

Why use periodicals for research?

A metaphor for scholarly periodical literature is "a conversation." Articles are relatively short and current compared to books. They invite thoughtful, critical response from an audience of peers, which may in turn publish research that refutes or concurs with new findings. A collection of articles on a particular issue may be seen as a scholarly dialogue without boundaries of time or space.

Some kinds of periodicals are more useful for research than others because of their intended audience, editorial policies, and level of scholarship. It is important to distinguish scholarly journals from popular magazines.

Scholarly journals

Scholarly journal articles are worthy and important to your research because they are:

Concise. You can read a variety of viewpoints in a short amount of time. And sometimes, you may be exposed to ideas or views that never find their way into books.

Current. Books may take years to publish; journal articles, months. Articles can be fresh, contemporaneous with events. Electronic journals, now proliferating on the Web, appear faster than their print counterparts.

Original. Originality of ideas or research is a standard requirement of most editorial boards. The "peer-review" process ensures that any manuscript submitted for publication has been thoroughly evaluated by experts in the discipline or subject area. When a journal has an editorial board of recognized scholars, we say that it is a "referreed" journal. It has quality control. You can use articles from it in your research; professors love referreed journals.

Documented. That is, they cite (i.e., include references to) earlier or concurrent research, sources of facts or statistics, and scrupulously identify the source of opinions or quotations. If you are looking at a periodical with no references, footnotes, endnotes, or bibliography, it's probably not a scholarly journal.

Non-scholarly periodicals

Popular magazines vary widely in quality. Some are so well-written, reputable, and even authoritative that they may be reliable sources of information, though they lack the thorough documentation of scholarly journals. Smithsonian, Natural History, and The Economist come to mind.

Other periodicals report current news and are careful to authenticate stories before publication. The New York Times, Time, and Newsweek fall into this category.

The kind of popular magazine found on supermarket racks is more likely to summarize trends, provide practical advice, or promote a certain viewpoint than report original research. Sources may be far removed from their origins or spring from opinion. The authors may be free-lance writers or staff writers, with no particular expertise. It is not a good idea to include popular magazines in your research bibliography, unless you are using them to illustrate a point about popular culture or trends. Ladies Home Journal, People Magazine, and Vogue are examples of popular magazines that should be used vary sparingly as research tools.

At the extreme end of the spectrum, sensational periodicals may report that our Congresspersons are space aliens. (In some cases, this may be plausible.) Written for the gullible and uninformed, these publications are unsuitable for anything but recycling. The National Enquirer, Weekly World News, and Star float into consciousness.

Periodical indexes

You cannot find periodical articles in the library catalog. You must use a periodicals index. To find a periodicals index on the World Wide Web, go to the library home page. Click on the link By Subject next to  Electronic Resources. Click on General Indexes or one of the subject areas.

Periodical indexes may be categorized as:

• General Indexes broadly covering a wide variety of subjects
• Interdisciplinary Indexes covering several related subject areas or academic disciplines
• Subject Indexes limited to a single subject area, with in-depth coverage

To visualize the differences in scope, please see this diagram of Types of Periodical Indexes.

Wonderful features of periodical indexes

Abstracts

Some indexes have abstracts, or summaries of the items included in their database of citations. (Remember, periodical indexes are really large, searchable databases.) Abstracts are extremely useful because they give you a clue about the value of the journal article or item. You can then decide to obtain it or not; what a timesaver!

Full-Text

The InfoTrac Academic ASAP and Business and Company ASAP indexes now include full-text of articles in a large selected list of periodicals. Ebsco Host and UMI ProQuest also have many full-text journals. Project Muse is a good choice to explore for humanities.

In the near future, academic libraries will offer more and more full-text resources.

Newspapers are a special type of periodical. Ramsey Library subscribes to both national and local newspapers.

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