Periodicals

Periodicals are materials that are issued periodically; they are published at regular intervals. Unlike monographs or books, periodicals contain relatively short articles that are focused in their scope.

Types of periodicals^[1]:

Journals: Journals are published for an academic or special audience and focus on a particular field of study. For instance, in history, one journal is The Early American Review. Because the audience is educated on the topic, the articles are focused, the writing style in journals is formal rather than engaging, and journals generally have little or no advertising or glossy, catchy graphics and illustrations. Articles are reviewed by an editorial board of scholars in the field before acceptance for publication. Articles contain footnotes that reference primary and secondary sources related to the topic and bibliographies to document their sources.

Magazine: a periodical, generally with a more “popular” style and presentation than a research journal. Usually, magazine articles are authored by staff writers for an audience of the general public or interested amateurs in a given field (rather than by researchers for their peers), and edited by a magazine employee rather than an independent board of scholars. Style tends to be engaging and eye-catching, and magazines often include substantial advertising. Since magazine articles are not written by historians or scholars, they are predominately used as primary source articles.

Newspapers: Published daily or weekly to report the news of a particular location. The provide a perspective how news is viewed in a particular area. Newspaper are best suited as primary source evidence and not secondary sources due to thier lack of documentation such as footnotes and bibliographies.^[2]

Visit the Spence Libguide “Types of Periodicals” for a chart outlining the differences and examples of each type.

The next chapter will discuss journal articles in greater depth.