PACE Resources: Distinguishing Periodical Types Online
Is it a magazine or a journal? Recognizing periodical types online
Many of the articles you locate will likely available in one of the library’s online periodicals databases in full-text format. Determining the periodical type of these can be difficult, as you do not have the entire periodical to look through for hints.
The following tips can help you determine whether a periodical is a popular magazine, trade publication, or scholarly journal.
Source title
Do not let the word Journal influence your decision process too strongly. Although
the word Journal is often an indicator of a scholarly publication, it doesn’t guarantee
it. (Think in particular of Ladies Home Journal, a popular magazine.)
Does the title indicate the periodical is geared toward a very specific and limited
audience? These titles are often trade publications and contain information that
will assist practitioners in a given field learn more about their work. For example,
Social Studies Teacher and American School Board Journal are both geared toward very
specific audiences, as their titles indicate.
Publication date
This can provide you with a big hint. Scholarly publications often have a quarterly
publication frequency, so those items that indicate an issue as Winter, Spring,
Summer or Fall will most likely be scholarly journals.
An indicator that a publication is probably not a scholarly journal would be a
publication date that includes a month, date and year. For example: January 23, 2006.
This kind of date usually indicates a publication that is published on either a weekly
or bi-weekly schedule, which is not a characteristic of scholarly journals.
Article length
The length can also provide you with valuable information. Articles in scholarly
journals, particularly research articles, will often be in excess of ten pages.
Although there may be articles in scholarly journals that are one to two pages, these
tend to be news releases or book reviews, and would not be the type of article
you would use in a research essay.
Articles in trade publications have varying lengths.
Articles in popular magazines tend to be short (under five pages).
Authors
Are author names listed? If there is no author name it is unlikely to be a
scholarly journal.
Are there multiple authors? Often scholarly or research studies will include a group
of authors.
Are the author’s credentials included in the citation? (i.e. PhD or MD) Again, this
is likely to be a scholarly or professional publication.
Supplementary items
Does the database record indicate that there are supplementary items such as
charts, tables or graphs included? The presence of these items will often indicate
scholarly journal articles, particularly if there are multiples of such items.
Does the record indicate there are if there are photographs included? Photographs
are most frequently included in popular and trade publications.
Still not sure? Check to see if the library has a print subscription you can look at, or ask a librarian for assistance.
