Paper No: 09 Social Science Information System Module : 05 General Periodicals, Newspapers, Annual Reports of Organizations, Archival Materials Etc Development Team Principal Investigator Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director & INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar Subject Coordinator Dr P R Goswami, Director (Library and Information), Paper Coordinator Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts DrTariq Ashraf, Content Writer Deputy Librarian, University of Delhi Content Reviewer Dr P R Goswami, Director (Library and Information), Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts 1 Library and Social Science Information System Information Science General Periodicals, Newspapers, Annual Reports of Organizations, Archival Materials Etc Description of Module Subject Name Library and Information Science Paper Name 09 Social Science Information System Module Name/Title General Periodicals, Newspapers, Annual Reports of Organizations, Archival Materials Etc Module Id LIS/SSIS-G/05 Social science literature, Research papers on general periodicals and related materials, Pre-requisites Indian archival systems and functions Objectives To study general social science information resources and understand their impacts Magazines; Annual Reports; Trade Journals; Private Papers; Diaries; Government Records; Keywords Archives; And Archival Materials 2 Library and Social Science Information System Information Science General Periodicals, Newspapers, Annual Reports of Organizations, Archival Materials Etc 1. Introduction Periodicals are publications which are issued at regular intervals, such as journals, magazines, and newspapers. They are also often referred to as serials. Periodicals usually consist of a collection of articles, which may range from a single page story in a magazine to a 40 page study in a scholarly journal. In other words, a periodical is a publication that: . contains multiple articles, often written by different authors, on a specific topic or subject area; . is published on a regular schedule (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly); . usually has the option of being received through a subscription. Periodicals can be published on paper or electronically and also priced or non-priced depending on the objective it was mwant for. Periodicals are broadly categorised under following broad heads: Periodicals Scholarly General Journals Periodicals Newsletters/ Trade & Industry Annual Newspapers Magazines Journals Reports 3 Library and Social Science Information System Information Science General Periodicals, Newspapers, Annual Reports of Organizations, Archival Materials Etc Scholarly Journals are mainly meant for research purpose and can be peer reviewed. Many such journals are presently offered elecronically in database form by various publishers. Basic characteristics of scholarly journals include 1. Report original research or experimentation, often in specific academic disciplines. 2. The targeted audience is the scholarly researcher, faculty, and students. 3. Articles are written by experts in the field, and are signed. 4. Articles often use specialized jargon of the discipline, and assume a familiarity with the subject. 5. Illustrations are few, and support the text, typically in the form of charts, graphs, and maps. 6. Often do not include advertisements. Any advertisements included would be unobtrusive. 7. Most scholarly journals subject articles to the peer review process prior to publication. Journals that employ the peer review process are also referred to as "refereed journals." 8. Articles usually include footnotes or bibliographies to other sources, using a standardized citation format. 9. Are typically published quarterly. Examples of Scholarly Journals: American journal social management sciences Journal of Scial Science Research Journal of Cultural Anthropology Social Problems However, detail discussion of scholarly publications have been done in the module Learned Societies and Scholarly Periodicals in the field of Social Science. 2. General Periodicals Periodicals which don’t provide scholarly articles, research communications can come under general periodicals category. When we use general periodicals, it is important to understand the difference between scholarly and popular periodicals.Newspapers, newsletters, magazines and annual reports are different types of general periodicals. Such periodicals are published regularly and disseminated to serve specific purpose in society eg. Current affairs, Product literature, Project developments, Company information, Business trends etc. General periodicals offer some advantages over books depending upon your information need. 2.1 Usefulness in social science research In general, general periodicals offer following benefits to social science research: Because they are published frequently, general periodicals are the best sources for current information. 4 Library and Social Science Information System Information Science General Periodicals, Newspapers, Annual Reports of Organizations, Archival Materials Etc Current events are usually discussed in general periodicals long before they become the subject of a book. General periodicals often contain information on the latest trends, products, research and theories. General periodicals are the best source for ephemeral or very specialized information such as newsletters on specific subjects, projects or Annual Reports of organizations. General periodicals provide access to a variety of recent and hard-to find information. Due to the shorter length of periodical articles, more topics may be covered within one volume of a periodical We will have specialized use of each categories of general periodicals as we go on through this module. Following Table 1 highlights basic characteristics of different types of periodicals: Table 1: Comparison between types of general periodicals Parameters Professional, Trade & Newsletter/ Magazines Newspapers Annual Reports Industry Journals Examples Accounting Technology Time The Times of India Annual Reports of Computers in Libraries Kurukshetra Hindustan Times PC World Akshay Urja Anandabazar Patrika Indian Ministries Socail science news The Telegraph PSUs Sports Illustrated Dainik Jagaran Corporate houses National Gegraphic Samachar Darpan Coverage& Uses Current trends, news & Current events and news News stories Primarily company or products in a field Hot topics Current information organizational Practical industry Brief, factual information Analysis & opinion of information information Short articles current events Financial information Company, organization Interviews Classified advrtisements Current trends, news & biographical news Editorials & products Career information Entertainment Brief, factual Book & product information information reviews Language Written for Non-technical vocabulary Non-technical Non-technical practitioners Often simple language vocabulary for general vocabulary for Specialized jargon audience general audience Authors Experts in the field Journalists Journalists Staff writers Journalists with subject Staff writers Staff writers Employees expertise Freelance writers Freelance writers Editorial Editors are generally Editors not academic Editors not academic Editors not academic Requirements experts in same field as experts in subject field of experts in subject field experts in subject authors article of article field of article 5 Library and Social Science Information System Information Science General Periodicals, Newspapers, Annual Reports of Organizations, Archival Materials Etc Articles rarely peer- Article topics often Specially trend Articles usually only reviewed prior to assigned or contracted Articles edited for edited for style and publication Articles usually only brevity format Articles checked for edited for style and format and style format Sources Occasional brief Original sources can be Sources are rarely cited Sources are rarely bibliographies obscure in full cited in full Sources can be sited in Sources, when used, are text rarely cited in full Primary information collected from market Publishers Commercial / trade Commercial / trade Commercial / trade Corporate ownership publishers publishers publishers Industry institutes Corporate ownership Corporate ownership Associations Graphics Graphs, charts, tables, Many graphics and Photos, graphics, charts Photos, graphics, photographs relevant to photographs Many advrtisements charts the industry Many full-page, color, Glossyadvrtisements glossy advrtisements Source:Adated from Gradowski, G., Snavely, L., & Dempsey P. General periodical also offers some additional benefits to social science research as listed below: Availability of resources o The frequency in which publishers churn out periodicals is a major advantage to social science researchers. Researchers working on cutting-edge topics or recent events often run into difficulty finding published resources due to the length of time it takes for books to be published. Yet because many periodicals are published monthly or quarterly, such researchers have relevant resources made available more quickly. Relevancy tracking o Additionally, because periodicals are published so frequently, the essays and articles contained in periodicals are more likely to be relevant and up to date. Often researchers face restrictions on the age of materials they can consult. Many professors and academics recommend that the majority of students' sources be no more than a decade old since