|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
A
periodical is a paper or electronic publication that is issued on
a regular
basis (quarterly,
monthly, weekly, daily, etc.). Four kinds of periodicals
you will find in most libraries are:
· Newspapers (such as Los Angeles Times, Washington Post)
report on current events, express opinions, and publish special
interest features.
· Popular Magazines (such as Psychology Today, Time, Vanity Fair,
National Geographic, Us, Ebony, Mira!) present articles of popular interest on a variety of subjects.
· Journals (such as International Affairs, Journal of American
History, Theatre Research International) publish articles by
scholars and other experts in their fields reporting on studies
and research that they have conducted in a particular subject area.
· Trade Magazines (such as Advertising Age, Journal of
Accountancy) enable practitioners in a trade or profession
to communicate with each other about new products and
methodologies.
Back to Top of Page
What is a periodical index?
A periodical index is an index to the articles in a variety of newspapers,
magazines and journals.
Periodical indexes usually appear in two formats:
electronic (online)
An electronic periodical index is often called an electronic database, online database,
but, most often, simply a database.
Databases and periodical indexes let you search by subject, keyword and a
variety of other criteria for citations that lead to articles relevant to your assignment.
Many electronic and paper periodical indexes include abstracts
(concise descriptions of the contents of articles) as well as
citations. Many electronic periodical indexes also include
convenient access to the full text of some or all of the articles
to which they provide citations.
What is a citation?
A citation is a brief description of a work that provides the reader
of your paper with just enough information to locate the complete
work that you are quoting or to which you are referring in your footnote
or bibliography. A citation includes:
- the author's name
- the title of the work
- the location and name of the publisher
- the year the work was published.
To fully identify a source that is part of a larger work, a citation
may also include:
- the title of a specific article or chapter
- a volume number
- the page numbers within the larger work.
When citing any periodical article, include:
- the author of the article
- the title of the article
- the name of the periodical
- the volume, date and page numbers
of the issue in which the article appears
You can locate the correct format for both electronic and paper citations
in your area of study by looking in the style manual recommended by your
instructor or by visiting the CSUDH Library webpage How to Cite Your
Sources in a Research Paper.
Back to Top of Page
An abstract is a brief summary of a larger work such as a journal or magazine article.
You can read through the abstract to decide whether an article will be helpful in your research.
Remember that reading an abstract is NOT the same as reading the entire journal article-
- you cannot cite the article unless you locate and read the entire article!!
A popular magazine is a periodical that contains articles on current events and news, interviews, reviews, news columns, etc. Covers and pages are often glossy with colorful graphics and illustrations that excite the reader's interest. Articles are usually brief (under 5 pages) and are written by journalists and free-lance writers.
What is a scholarly, peer reviewed journal?
You will often be asked to complete an assignment using scholarly or peer reviewed articles.
This type of periodical article is generally found in a scholarly journal
A scholarly journal is a periodical that contains articles written by and for professionals or scholars such as
historians, scientists and psychologists. These publications contain:
and
topic within the field of study.
Scholarly journals are widely regarded as a reliable source of information
on a topic because each article is evaluated both by an editorial board and
by experts who are not part of the editorial staff before it is accepted it for
publication. This process of evaluation is called the peer review or referee process.
Other terms often used to refer to scholarly journals include:
- peer-reviewed journal
- journal
- refereed journal
- academic journal
- research journal
- juried publication
Periodical articles from magazines or newspapers provide some basic
information on a topic but usually lack the depth and authority of
scholarly journal articles.
Characteristics of scholarly journals:
- authors of articles are authorities in their fields
- most articles are reports on scholarly research
- articles use jargon of the discipline or technical language
- articles have little or no advertising
- illustrations are usually charts and graphs.
- articles are usually long (more than 5 pages)
with footnotes, endnotes and lists of references
(bibliographies) citing the authors' sources
- journals are often published by professional organizations
(such as the American Psychological Association)
How
can I be sure I'm consulting scholarly articles?
|
Use an appropriate periodical index that indexes primarily scholarly journals | |
| such as JSTOR , Wilson Web , Project Muse or Medline. | ||
|
Use a periodical index that allows you to restrict or limit your search to | |
| scholarly journal articles by making a checkmark in the appropriate box. Academic Search Premier , ABI Inform/ProQuest , CINAHL Plus with Full Text and many other databases offer this function. |
||
|
Determine whether a particular journal you want to cite is truly a peer reviewed, refereed journal by | |
|
checking the title in Ulrich's Periodical Directory online (enter the journal title and look for a small black and white referee's t-shirt icon to the left of the title). |
||
|
Read through abstracts (brief summaries provided with search results in | |
| many electronic periodical indexes, and often found at the beginning of a scholarly article, just below the title) Look for some of these characteristics of a scholarly article: -- description of recent formal research or a scientific study conducted by the authors -- a summary of previous work in the field by the authors -- other researchers (literature review) references to subjects or materials that were studied and methods that were used to conduct research description of results or conclusions drawn from the research |
||
|
Read over the article itself, looking for: | |
| -- technical language or jargon that belongs to a particular academic field | ||
| -- charts or graphs that illustrate results of research | ||
-- citations to the author’s sources (other books and articles) in footnotes |
||
 |
View this helpful interactive tutorial: Evaluating Scholarly Content Online (takes about 5 minutes). | |
|
Still not sure? Ask a Reference Librarian for help! |
E. Carol Dales
Library Bibliographic Instruction Coordinator
California State University,
Dominguez Hills
cdales@csudh.edu
Ph: 310-243-2088
Last updated April 7, 2008