UNIT 5

REFERENCE SOURCES AND PERIODICALS

LESSON OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit students will be able to:

● Define reference sources of information.

● Identify examples of reference sources of information
● Define periodicals.
● Identify types of periodical literature.
● Understand the role of periodical literature in research.
● Evaluate articles in periodicals.
● Find periodicals in the MSU Library.

INTRODUCTION TO REFERENCE SOURCES

According to Behrens (1994), a reference source supplies authoritative information. It is

intended to be referred to briefly for specific factual information only, and not to be read
from cover to cover. Reference sources provide answers to specific questions, such as
brief facts, statistics, and technical instructions; provide background information; or
direct you to additional information sources. Reference sources are not scholarly (peer-
reviewed). In most libraries, reference sources do not circulate and are located in a
separate reference collection. This practice makes reference sources readily available
and easily accessible.

A reference source is designed by the arrangement and treatment of its subject matter to
be consulted for definitive items of information rather than to be read consecutively. To
facilitate its ease of use, particular attention is paid to the systematic arrangement of
items within it. Reference materials can be arranged alphabetically, topically, or
chronologically. There are thousands of reference sources available that cover practically
every subject. In most libraries, these books are not issued and are located in a separate
reference collection. This practice makes reference sources readily available and easily
accessible. Most of the reference books are specifically designed to provide required
information quickly and in most convenient form. Although the term reference "book" is
frequently used, reference sources can be books, serials, on-line databases or information
found on the Internet. A large part of using reference sources well is choosing the right
one for your needs.

Quick guide for selecting the right type of reference source (Collins, 151):

For information about... Choose...

1. Words Dictionaries
2. General information/Overview of topic Encyclopedias
 3 Names & addresses of people, organizations, Directories
. institutions, companies
4 Profiles of people Biographical Dictionaries
.
5 Places/Maps Gazetteers or Atlases
.
6 Facts and Statistics Almanacs
.
7 Formula, Tables, How-To-Do-It Handbooks and Manuals
.
8 A person's work Reviews or Criticisms
.
9 Dates, outlines, historical timelines Historical tables, Chronologies,
. Historical yearbooks
10 Periodical Articles Indexes or Abstracts
.
11 Books and other sources Bibliographies or Guides to
. Literature...

CHARACTERISTICS OF REFERENCE SOURCES

1. They are intended primarily for occasional consultation.

2. They are consulted for definite items of information.
3. The information included in them is collected from a vast number of sources.
4. It is a miscellany of information and facts.
5. The arrangement of information is such that it can be conveniently and quickly
recalled.
6. It follows some methods of arrangement e.g. Alphabetical, Chronological or other
methods.
7. They include only an overview of the topics and rarely deal them in depth.
8. They usually concentrate on facts.
9. They are normally not issued on loan and kept for use in the library only.
10. Information in a reference book is so organized that anyone can easily get their
desired information.

CATEGORIES OF REFERENCE SOURCES

In the following section different categories of reference sources, their characteristics

and uses are discussed.

DICTIONARY

According to Katz (1997), a dictionary gives the modern meaning of words. Behrens
(1994) defines a dictionary as a list of the words of a language or languages, or a list
of words relating to a specific subject. The words are arranged in a systematic way,
usually alphabetically. There are four types of dictionaries namely:

Dictionary is a book containing words of a language arranged alphabetically with their

meanings. Most dictionaries list pronunciations, grammatical labels, illustrative
quotations, synonyms, antonyms, usage notes, etymology and other information.
Some dictionaries give derivation and history of the words too.
TYPES OF DICTIONARIES

Based on the number of words, scope and coverage of other items of information, the
dictionaries can be categorized into following groups:

GENERAL LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES

General language dictionaries cover all the words of a language and give meanings,
definition, and explanation of the words in the same language. It covers all the words of a
language, including past as well as currently in use words.

SUBJECT DICTIONARIES

Subject dictionaries concentrate on the definition of the terms in a given subject. Subject
dictionaries are becoming increasingly common, due to increase in study and research in
different subject areas ranging from arts, humanities, social sciences to science and
technology.

SPECIAL DICTIONARIES

The special dictionaries deal with special types or special aspect of the words. Special type
or class of words includes obsolete words, acronyms, abbreviations etc. Special aspect of
the word includes linguistic aspect of the words (such as pronunciation, synonym and
antonyms, etc.), or literary aspect of the words (such as quotations, idioms, proverbs,
etc.).

BILINGUAL AND MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARIES (TRANSLATING DICTIONARIES)

The bilingual dictionaries give meaning of a word from one language to another language.
For example, an English-Hindi dictionary will list words in English and give equivalent words
in Hindi. This type of dictionary is called bilingual dictionary. A multilingual dictionary gives
meaning of a word in more than two languages.
These dictionaries are also called translating dictionaries. Many of them are limited in scope
to certain subject fields such as astronomy, biology, electronics, etc.

THESAURUS AND GLOSSARY

Thesaurus is a book in which words that have the same or similar meaning (synonyms and
sometimes antonyms) are grouped together. In contrast to dictionary, which helps to find
meaning and pronunciation of the words, thesaurus helps to find most appropriate word to
express an idea and also other related words.
A glossary is an alphabetical list of words related to a specific subject, text or dialect with
explanation. A glossary is usually provided at the back of the book showing the definitions of
technical terms in that particular field of knowledge used in that book.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA

It is a book or set of books giving information on all branches of knowledge or on certain

wide fields with articles arranged alphabetically. An encyclopaedia contains information
about people, places, events, and things. It may deal with all areas of knowledge or it may
be limited to just one subject area. Articles in standard encyclopaedia are written by
subject specialists and then edited by the encyclopaedia staff editors to conform to policies
of the encyclopaedia in terms of content, style and punctuation. Most encyclopaedias are
arranged alphabetically from A to Z. Some are topically arranged, such as one volume may
be devoted to 'Animals', another to 'Plants', 'Earth' and Universe', or some other subjects.

TYPES OF ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

GENERAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA

General Encyclopaedias cover all fields of knowledge, for example, Encyclopaedia

Britannica. Subject Encyclopaedia covers either single subject such as Encyclopaedia of
Physics or group of subjects such as Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology. (a) General
encyclopaedia can be further categorized according to Size (single volume-set or
multivolume-set), and target users (for adults, students or children).

General encyclopaedias provide information about nearly every topic. Using an

encyclopaedia is an effective way to quickly get a broad overview of a subject. Some
encyclopaedias will provide more in-depth information than others, however any general
encyclopaedia is a good source to consult for background information of your chosen
subject area. Most encyclopaedias provide the following:

● Main concepts
● Titles of important books written about topic
● Names of authors who have written about topic
● Keywords and subject terms related to topic
● Lists of related articles or additional resources

SUBJECT ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

A subject encyclopaedia provides detailed information on specific area of knowledge such as

arts and humanities, science and technology, social sciences, etc. There are thousands of
subject encyclopaedias ranging from broad subject area to a very narrow subject field.
There are multivolume as well as single volume subject encyclopaedias. Some subject
encyclopaedias are meant for subject
specialists and some are for students and general readers interested in that subject.

Subject encyclopaedias provide more detailed and technical information on specific area of
knowledge such as arts, science and technology or social sciences. Specialized
encyclopaedia is also known as subject encyclopaedia. They are important background
sources of information. Unlike general encyclopaedias which cover a wide range of topics,
subject-specific encyclopaedias focus their information in one particular subject area.
Some features of subject-specific encyclopaedias include:

● Detailed articles written by experts within a field

● Extensive and comprehensive bibliographies of important resource

YEARBOOKS

Yearbook, as the name indicates, is a book of information that is updated and published
annually, i.e., every year. The basic purpose of a yearbook is to record events and
developments of the previous year in a country or in the world. Based on their scope and
type of information covered yearbooks can be categorized as:- International Yearbook,
National Yearbook, Subject Yearbook. An international Yearbook provides reliable and
handy statistical information about each country of the world. For example, The
Statesman's Yearbook 2014 published by Macmillan, provides political, economic and social
account of every country (194 countries) of the world together with facts and analysis.

ALMANAC

An almanac provides brief statistical information and facts, both current and retrospective
(e.g World Almanac & Book of Facts. This is usually a one-volume work with statistics and a
compilation of specific facts.An almanac is a compendium of useful data and statistics
relating to countries, personalities, events, subjects and the likes (Katz; 1997). Almanacs
are usually published annually.

Almanac is a reference book usually published once a year and contains many kinds of
information. Almanacs originally provided a calendar of the months with eclipses, the
movement of planets and the rising and setting of sun, moon and stars. Present day
almanacs include a comprehensive presentation of statistical and descriptive data covering
the entire world.

Major topics covered are geography, government, demographic data, agriculture,

economics and business, health and medicine, Science & Technology, transport, sports,
awards and prizes. Contents also include articles focusing on events of previous year as well
as summary of recent events. Now the almanacs are more like yearbooks. Both depend on
government sources for statistical data. The only difference is that almanacs present
astronomical data, which is absent in the yearbooks.

HANDBOOK
The word handbook is derived from German word 'Handbuch' meaning a small book giving
useful facts. The literal meaning of the term 'handbook' is a book which is 'handy' to use as
it contains useful facts and handy to carry it conveniently. Handbook by definition is a
concise reference book providing specific information or instruction about a topic or a
subject. Subject handbook basically gives brief information such as facts on a subject. They
are designed to be easily consulted and provide quick answers. Behrens (1994) describes a
handbook as a reference source that provides basic information on a specific subject. It
presents one broad subject in brief, or gives a brief survey of a subject (e.g. Handbook of
American Popular Culture).

MANUAL

Term 'manual' is derived from Latin term 'manuals' meaning a guide book. Manual basically
provides step-by-step instructions on how to do a particular job or operate a particular
machine. When a customer buys any home appliances, such as a television, an air
conditioner, an oven or even a mobile phone, he/she is provided with a manual which gives
proper instructions on how to use that appliance. For example, a cookbook or a book
providing step-by-step instructions to assemble a computer is a manual. Behrens (1994)
describes a manual as a book that contains rules and procedures relating to a specific
subject. It explains how things are done, for instance, how a machine operates; or how an
organisation operates (e.g. MLA Handbook, and Broadcast News Manual of Style).

DIRECTORY
A directory is a list of names and addresses of people and organizations. Directories are
also very important reference tools in the library to answer directory type of enquiries
from the users. Directories can be broadly categorized as General Directories, and Special
Directories.

General Directories

Telephone directory comes under the category of general directories. You must be
familiar with telephone directory. Every city in a country has telephone directory giving
information about telephone numbers of the subscribers. It also provides addresses along
with the telephone numbers of the subscribers. These directories are usually compiled by
post and telegraph departments.

Special Directories

Directories of organizations are called special directories and can be broadly

grouped into following three types:

Directories of academic institutions

This directory lists institutions of higher education and learning such as universities and
colleges. Under each academic institution, information provided is, the type of courses
and facilities offered, eligibility criteria,
names of the senior staff members, etc. These directories may be international
or national in coverage.

Professionals Directories:

There are thousands of learned societies and associations in the world, in almost every
significant field of knowledge. Members of these associations are scholars in their
respective area of specialization. These associations also compile directories listing
details of their members.

Trade and Business Directories:

These directories provide information about trade, business and industries.

GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SOURCES

Geographical information sources include maps, atlases, globes, gazetteers, and guide
books. These sources provide information about places, people, rivers, mountains,
forests, lakes etc. To meet information needs of the users, libraries maintain
geographical information sources in their reference collection. This collection
comprises the following four types:-

a. MAPS
Map is a pictorial presentation of earth's surface or part of it, showing countries, cities,
rivers, lakes and mountains. Map can also be a drawing of the sky showing the position
of stars and the planets.

TYPES OF MAPS:

There are many types of maps. Most familiar types are:-

a) GENERAL REFERENCE MAPS

General reference maps identify and locate a variety of geographic features. Such maps
may include land features, boundaries of water, political boundaries, cities and towns,
and many other elements. People use general reference maps to locate

b) POLITICAL MAPS:

Maps that depict boundaries of countries, states, continents and other political units
are called political maps.

c) PHYSICAL MAPS:

Maps that depict the location of physical features of the earth's surface such as mountains,
rivers and lakes are called physical maps or terrain maps.
 d) ROUTE MAPS, STREET MAPS AND CHARTS:

Some maps are designed to help people to find their way from one place to another.
These are maps for travel on land, on water or, in the air. Maps showing different
categories of roads, such as motorways, four-lane, or six- lane roads are called road
maps, They also show the cities, towns, parks and other places connected by those
roads. Street maps are similar to road maps, but a street map shows a much smaller
area in much more detail.

e) THEMATIC MAPS:

These maps show the distribution of a particular feature such as, population, rainfall or
natural resources like coal, petroleum, metals and minerals on the earth. Many
thematic maps express quantities by means of symbols or colour.

b. ATLAS:

A book containing collection of maps is called an atlas. A big atlas contains the map of
every county. Globe is a map that has been pasted or printed on a hollow sphere. Only a
globe can give correct picture of the earth as a whole, as the surface of the globe is
rounded like the earth's surface. A globe represents all parts of the earth's surface
correctly. The proportions and positions of the earth's land features and oceans in
relation to each other are seen on a globe exactly as they are on the earth. National
Maps and Atlases The reliability of maps and atlases depend upon the expertise of
editorial staff and the cartographers.

c. GAZETTEERS

A dictionary of geographical places (no maps) (e.g. Webster’s New Geographical

Dictionary). Whittaker (1963) describes a gazetteer as a reference source that provides
the latitude and longitude of places, together with a brief description of them. For
example, if a gazetteer is for Harare as a town, the population and industries of Harare
will be noted. Hill and Frew (1999) define a gazetteer as a list of geographic names,
together with their geographic locations and other descriptive information.

● A gazetteer makes an attempt to answer some of the following questions:

● It answers the "Where is" question; for example, "Where is Victoria Falls?"
● It translates between geographic names and locations so that a user of the library can
find a collection objects through matching the footprint of a geographic name to the
footprints of the collection objects.
● It allows a user to locate a particular type of geographic features in a designated area.
For example, the user can draw a box around an area on a map and find the schools,
hospitals, lakes, or volcanoes (as in Figure 2) in the
 area. This is possible because of the third required component of a gazetteer entry -- the
type (or category) of place.
● As a reference source, a gazetteer provides historical, social, cultural, political,
industrial, demographic and administrative details of a country, state or a district. Based
on their coverage, gazetteer can be categorized into International Gazetteer, National
Gazetteer; and Local Gazetteer.

d. GUIDE BOOKS

Behrens (1994) defines a guidebook as a source which provides basic information about a
place or places, for the use of a traveller or visitor. The information about the place
concerns how to get there, where to stay, and what to see. Guidebooks are used to guide
visitors with information such as hotel prices, sites of interest, banks, airports, railway
stations, hospitals etc. An example of a travel guide is The Illustrated Guide to Southern
Africa.

Guide Books are basically travel guides or tourist guides meant for people who want to
visit various places in their own country or any other part of the world. Main purpose of
the guide book is to guide the travellers when to visit a particular place, how to reach,
where to stay, what to see, and what to buy. The travel guides include information on
historical sites, museums, parks, and other places worth visiting in that city or a country.
Other aspects covered are information on the routes and travel facilities, best time to visit
the place, the types of hotels, restaurants and shopping complexes, etc.

Maps, illustrations and distances are also provided to enhance the usefulness of the guide
book. In addition, information regarding visa, money exchange, weather, etc. is also given
for the benefit of the foreign visitors. Usually a guidebook covers a region, a country or a
city. Tourism Departments of the Governments in most of the countries bring out tourists
guides to promote tourism in the country.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SOURCES

A biography by definition is an account of a person's life, usually written by someone else

and published or intended to be published. Biographical sources are publications listing
biographical details of famous people. Such sources cover biographies of world leaders,
people holding key positions in international organizations, people with outstanding
performance in sports, music, dance, acting and other professional fields like science &
technology, medicine etc. A biographical source may contain a biography of an individual
or biographies of group of people (called collective biographies).

A book containing collective biographies is also called 'Biographical Dictionary', for

example The Dictionary of International Biography. The type of information covered in
such sources also varies from a brief factual type of data to detailed essay type of
biography for each entry.
Some biographical sources cover famous people from all walks of life. Such sources are
called 'general biographical sources'. In some, the coverage of people is restricted to a
single discipline or some other special criteria. Such biographical sources are called
subject/special biographical sources.

Again, a biographical source may be international or national in scope depending upon

the coverage of persons. Some biographical sources cover living persons only,
e.g. 'Who's Who', Some cover persons who are no longer living, e.g. 'Who was Who', and
some sources cover life sketches of both, living and dead persons, e.g. Webster's
Biographical Dictionary.

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

According to Katz (1997), a government publication is any publication that is printed at

government expense or published by authority of a governmental body. The government
publishes hundreds of documents every year to inform the public and other
organizations. Most government publications are published by various ministries in the
government and at times the government may also publish documents with other
organizations such as NGOs.

Government publications contain official information and they include such documents
like Acts of Parliament, parliamentary proceedings such as the Hansard, Government
gazette, Statistics, reports and the like. The physical form of government publications
may be a book, pamphlets, magazine, report, monograph or electronic.

QUICK GUIDE TO SELECTING THE RIGHT REFERENCE SOURCE

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT... CHOOSE...

Words Dictionaries
General information/Overview of topic Encyclopedias
Names & addresses of people, organizations, institutions,
Directories
companies
Profiles of people Biographical
Dictionaries
Places/Maps Gazetteers or Atlases
Facts and Statistics Almanacs
Formula, Tables, How-To-Do-It Handbooks and Manuals
Dates, outlines, historical timelines Yearbooks
Periodical Articles Indexes or Abstracts
Bibliographies or Guides
Books and other sources
to Literature...

ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC REFERENCE SOURCES

There are many advantages of electronic reference sources than their print
counterparts.
 ● Electronic reference sources are more frequently updated than their
print counterparts.
● They provide more search options.
● Provide access to wider range of information.
● Provide faster and easy access to information. This is particularly so
in the case of indexing and abstracting periodicals, where back
volumes are consolidated into single searchable database, search is
easy and extremely fast.
● Online bibliographic databases provide linkages from citations to full
text e-journals. Full-text data can be delivered instantly on the remote
computer.
● Content can be delivered in multimedia format where text, video, and
sound can be added.
● A print source can be used by one user at a time, whereas an online
source can be accessed simultaneously by many users.
● An online electronic source can be accessed at any time and from any
place where network exists.

LIMITATIONS OF ELECTRONIC REFERENCE SOURCES

● Use of electronic reference sources requires expensive infrastructure,

which must be acquired, maintained and upgraded. This covers
computer hardware and software, Internet connection and subscription
to databases.
● Electronic reference sources, despite being user friendly, require certain
degree of computer literacy to get maximum benefit from them. This
means libraries have to incur expenses to train their staff as well as their
users to use these resources. Most of the publishers of e-reference books
sell their products through license agreement, which imposes certain
restrictions on their usage.
● Reading from computer screen is strenuous. Most of the users prefer
to take print out for reading.
● Presently, most of the library users prefer to use electronic reference
sources, because of the speed of searching, remote access and
availability of these resources on the internet on 24/7 basis. Many
libraries have a web page showing frequently used online reference
works. (http://www.mhhe.com/katz/)

PERIODICALS
By the end of this section students will be able to:
● Define periodicals.
● Identify types of periodical literature.
● Understand the role of periodical literature in research.
● Evaluate articles in periodicals.
● Find periodicals in the MSU Library.
●

INTRODUCTION TO PERIODICALS

According to the 1964 UNESCO Conference on periodicals “periodicals are

publications with a distinctive title published continuously on a regular basis on
an indefinite period of time.” Magazines, annual reports, journals, and
newspapers are all examples of periodicals. Each issue has a volume number,
issue number and date”. e.g. Journal of African law, Volume 57, Number 1,
(January-March 2013). ISSN 0021-8553. Each publication of a periodical is called
an issue, and issues generally make up a volume. These can be available as hard
copies or electronic editions (soft/digital copies) of the various issues.

TYPES OF PERIODICALS LITERATURE

a) Scholarly Journals

Scholarly journals are also called academic; peer reviewed, or refereed

journals. Peer reviewed journals refer only to those scholarly journals that
submit articles to several other scholars, experts, or academics (i.e. peers) in
the field for review and comment. These reviewers must agree that the article
represents properly conducted original research or writing before it can be
published. A peer-reviewed (or refereed) journal only publishes articles that
meet the approval of one or more experts in the field. They typically offer high
quality, scholarly research.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SCHOLARLY/ACADEMIC JOURNALS

● Scholarly journal articles often have an abstract, a descriptive

summary of the articles’ contents, before the main text of the
article.
● Academic journals contain extensive, lengthy and detailed articles.
● Scholarly journals generally have a sober, serious look. They often
contain many graphs and charts but few glossy pages or exciting
pictures.
● Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes
or bibliographies. These bibliographies are generally lengthy and cite
other scholarly writings.
● Articles are written by a scholar in the field or by someone who has
done research in the field. The affiliations of the authors are listed,
usually at the bottom of the first page or at the end of the article –
universities, research institutions, think tanks and the like.
● The language of scholarly journals is that of the discipline covered. It
 assumes some technical background on the part of the reader.
● The main purpose of scholarly journal is to report on original research
or experimentation in order to make such information available to
the rest of the scholarly world.
● Many scholarly journals, though by no means all, are published by a
specific professional organization.
● Most academic journals are subject specific.
● Researchers should use scholarly journal articles when they need
focused, up- to-date information on a topic. In general, they should
use scholarly sources for research because they provide a greater
depth of information. However, in some cases it is also acceptable to
use popular sources such as newspapers.

b) Professional Journals

These are usually issued by professional institutions or Associations to provide

professional news and events, for example, forth coming conferences, research
reports, workshops and researches in progress. An example of such a
publication is journal of Educational Psychology published by the American
Psychology Association. When professionals want to know about recent updates
in their practice and new information about helpful researches in their field,
one of the sources of information that they can definitely depend on is a
professional journal.

Each profession can have a professional or an academic journal that tackles

different topics about that particular industry. Professional journals are always
trusted by people because all of the articles and the information published in
the pages are all factual and based on actual studies with evidences. In
addition to that, these journals are also reviewed by a special board to ensure
the credibility and relevance of the content to the profession and to the
industry as a whole. Although the primary purpose of these academic journals is
not to generate income, there will be a need to pay for a fee for the
subscription of future copies especially if the publication is done by a
commercial publisher.

Professional journals differ from other types of publications such

as newspapers, magazines and personal journals in their content.
Unlike popular journals which cover different topics for the
general public. Contents of a professional journal will only be
beneficial to those professionals in a particular industry.

c) Popular Magazines

A Magazine is a popular interest periodical usually containing articles on a

variety of topics, written by various authors in a non scholarly style. Most
magazines are heavily illustrated, contain lots of advertisements and are printed
on glossy paper.
Articles are usually short frequently unsigned, and do not include a bibliography
or list of reference for further reading. Magazines are written by general readers
for general use. They come out more frequently than scholarly journals, for
example, the Drum Magazine. Articles are not researched to the same degree as
 scholarly journal articles. Their purpose is mainly for entertainment and
information.

d) Newspapers

The most known frequency of a newspaper is daily, but there are newspapers
that come weekly or monthly. Newspapers are concerned with current and vital
information on a wide range of topics, for example, The Herald. The aim of the
newspaper is to keep the public informed about local, national and international
news. However, their frequency of publication often means that articles lack
the research and documentation found in scholarly journals. One good
characteristic of a newspaper is that it is cheaper to acquire than a journal.

e) Trade Journals

This is a periodical that publishes current news and trends for a specific industry
or trade. Articles are written by someone with knowledge in the field for other
practitioners. Advertisements are targeted at professionals in the field.
TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PERIODICALS
Newspapers Popular Trade journals Scholarly &
Magazines Research
Journals
Examples Herald Drum - Physics Today Journal of
Chronicle Moto You - African
Financial Gazette Trends Americ History
Sunday Mail an Journal of
The Standard Archae Modern
The Independent ology African Studies
- Conflict
Ameri
Management
can
Librar and Peace Science
ies
Purpose Current Hot topics; Current trends Original research;
information; Current events; and news in a Refereed or peer
Upcoming and past Interviews; particular reviewed; Depth of
events; Editorials; popular culture field of study; knowledge about
Obituaries; Employment; the subject;
Classified Ads; Book reviews; Bibliography;
Columns Business Professional
Connections authors
Language Non- technical; Non-technical; Jargon; Academic;
Written for a Written for a Written for Technical; Specific
general audience general audience practitioners for
the
discipline
Authors Journalists; Journalists Practitioners in Researchers;
Freelance writers the Scholars; Academics
Field
Sources Rarely cites Rarely cites Brief Extensive
sources sources Bibliographies bibliographies
Publisher Commercial Commercial Professional Universities;
S Publisher Publisher Association Research
organisations
Graphics Photos; Ads Glossy photos; Photos; Ads; Graphs; Charts;

THE ROLE OF PERIODICAL LITERATURE IN RESEARCH

● The importance of periodical literature lies in their ability to capture the most
recent discoveries, theories and trends in a subject.
● Periodicals provide current information as compared to books since they
are published at shorter intervals than text books which take more than
six months to go through.
● Periodicals also offer a variety of opinions and views readily available
from different authors in one volume.
● Published journal articles typically have gone through a rigorous
screening process known as blind peer review, whereby independent
experts provide the author with critical commentary and suggestions to
improve their final paper, prior to publication. Review boards ensure all
peer reviewed journals follow a scholarly format and adhere to the
highest levels of academic scholarship.
● Articles are also increasingly Internet accessible through Web sites
maintained by the publishers of journals.
● Easy and fast way to correct errors in previous issues since the next issue
may only be three months away for quarterly publications or six months
for a biennial publication.
● Each article published in a journal will explore a very narrow, specific topic in
depth. You can learn about a particular aspect of your topic in far greater detail
than that which would be afforded in a text book or if it was reported in a popular
magazine or newspaper.

EVALUATING ARTICLES IN A PERIODICAL

When evaluating an article in a periodical you should look at the:

a. Relevance - Does the publication relate to your topic so that it is useful

for your research? General vs. Specific – Look at sources which cover your
topic on a general level and which are more specific or technical. You
can check this by skimming the title and abstract. An assortment of
general and specific sources is good if you are working with this topic for
the first time.

b. Reliability (Authority) – What is the quality of the publication?Finding

the authority of a source means determining who wrote it and what
his/her background is with the subject. Is this author an expert on the
subject? If not, is that important? If the source does not give
bibliographical information, consult a bibliographical reference source.
Example: If no information is available, examine the resources you have
been using for other works by the author.
c. Accuracy – It is important to know where the author got his/her facts and if the
facts are correct. A bibliography of the source can show you which references the
author used to get his/her information. If the author supports his/her statements
with references, the source is more reliable.

d. Currency – For some subjects, currency of information is extremely

important, particularly in fields that are constantly changing, like
Medicine or Technology. For other subjects, like History or English, older
materials may be just as valuable as newer ones. Look at the date of
publication on your source.

e. Purpose and bias– Determine whether the source is published by an

organization with a particular purpose. Determine whether the work
attempts to sell a particular point of view, if it does then it has a bias
therefore is subjective information. Verify if the source is scholarly or
popular.

f. Bibliography - Scholarly works always contain a bibliography of the

resources that were consulted. The references in this list should be in
sufficient quantity and be appropriate for the content.

g. Audience - For what type of reader is the author writing? This ties in
with the type of journal, as popular magazine are geared to the general
reader, while trade magazines are for the specialist and scholarly
journals are directed at researchers, scholars or experts in the field.

h. Illustrations - Are charts, graphs, maps, photographs, etc. used to

illustrate concepts? Are the illustrations relevant? Are they clear and
professional- looking?