Q. What is a periodical?

The word periodical is related to period, as in a certain length of time. Periodicals are published with regular intervals of time between issues and are described by that length of time, whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual. Periodicals can be meant for a general audience like the ones you find on a magazine stand in the airport, or they may be more specialized for readers with specific interests, such as The Journal of the Society for Penguin Appreciation or Window Washer Gazette (credit vocabulary.com).

• Types of periodicals: magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. 
  • Scholarly journals may be issued monthly or quarterly.
  • Magazines are often published monthly or weekly, while newspapers generally come out daily or weekly.
• Keep in mind that despite the information above, some article databases use the term "periodical" to refer exclusively to magazines and not to scholarly journals or newspapers. 

• You can find the online periodicals available through Walker Library using eJournals A-Z. The eJournals A-Z link is inside the JEWL Search box on the Library's home page. 

• Print magazines and journals are shelved in the Periodicals area on the first floor.

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