Serials
This is the term given to publications which are published on a regular basis. Examples are newspapers, magazines, periodicals and journals.
Many journals are now available electronically as well as (or instead of) in print format.
Researchers in the field publish reports of their research in academic journals. The advantage of such journal articles are:
You might use a book or encyclopaedia to provide an overview and background about a topic then use journal articles for more specific, in-depth and current information.
Note that the term journal implies a scholarly, research level publication, usually written by experts in a field of knowledge for an audience of experts. Journal articles are usually in depth. In contrast, magazines and periodicals refer to popular publications, such as Newsweek. Many of the articles are written by journalists, who may be well informed but not necessarily experts on a topic. They often cover a topic broadly, and should be used with discrimination.
Refereed articles
A refereed article is a publication that has undergone an extensive peer review process by specialists in that area.
Some journals require all articles submitted for publication to be refereed-- these are called refereed journals, also known as peer-reviewed or scholarly journals. These tend to have little or no advertising.
Not all journals in the library are peer-reviewed or refereed.
Characteristics of refereed articles are:
You may be able to tell if a journal is a peer-reviewed one by reading the general or author information at the front of the journal issue.
You should rely on refereed articles as much as possible in your report, as they are considered to be more authoritative than non-refereed articles.
