1)    Determine the Key concepts of your topic

2)    Define your key words / search terms.

3)    Choose your databases and resources

4)    Formulate the search statement

5)    Refine and focus your results

6)    Evaluate and manage the results

7)    Locate the full articles

Periodicals are useful for three primary reasons:  they...

- provide a wealth of valuable information that is current and timely
- contain the latest discussions on a topic
- cover topics not yet published in book form

Periodicals are created for different audiences. Some are for general readers and others for scholars and researchers.

Although the terms periodical, journal, serial and magazine have slightly different definitions, you will likely hear them used interchangeably. These are works that come out on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, annually) and contain articles written by various authors.