Glossary of Formats of Published Material (all available through the library's databases)
Case Study - A case study may be published as a journal article or as an entire monograph. A case study is the detailed report and evaluation of some event or organization. The case study will include great deals of context and methodology as well as the conclusions of the researchers.
Conference Report or Proceedings - A conference report or proceeding is a written form of a presentation or all the presentations given at a conference. These are often edited versions of the oral presentation. It is not uncommon to see a journal article that is nearly the same as a conference report from a year or two earlier.
Journal (trade or scholarly) - A journal is a periodical that is meant for a specific audience and is typically for educational purposes. A trade journal is intended for people that work in that industry. A scholarly journal is one that intended for academics (students, professors, and independent scholars).
Literature Review - A literature review is an extended writing that focuses on summarizing the state of research in one area. The review itself is often a summary of as many of the articles and books written over a certain timeframe. This is a great way to create a bibliography of works on a subject.
Magazine - A magazine is a periodical that is meant for a general audience and is typically for entertainment or hobby.
Monograph - A monograph is a writing (graphe) on one (monos) subject. A detailed book about one subject is a monograph.
Periodical - A periodical is a written source that is issued/published periodically. Newspapers are published daily, journals and magazines may be published monthly or quarterly, and some reports or government papers are issued annually.
Preprint - An article or working paper that is submitted for publication. Often a publisher will allow this version of the paper to be circulated or even posted online (some databases or an institutional repository). It varies from publisher to publisher as to if this "preprint" is post-peer review or not.
Reference - Reference are books that are used for quick introductory research, not in-depth. Reference materials include dictionaries, encyclopedias, lexicons, atlases, and such. They are often produced by many people under the direction of one general editor.
Serial - A serial publication is one that is meant to be viewed as one work that is published in many parts. The time between publications may vary, but all the parts are meant to be taken as a whole. The word "series" many appear in the subtitle if it is a book series.
Theses and Dissertations - Theses are papers written at the end of either a Masters degree or a doctorate. A dissertation is typically the name for the paper at the end of a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) program. These papers are very detailed, have great depth of research and typically are very current in their research. They are often looked down upon in research because, though they are reviewed by supervisor and "readers", they are not edited like a monograph.
White Paper - A white paper is a document which intends to persuade the reader to the point of view of the author. Typically a white paper is a proposal about a change and it includes the logic and evidence to support that idea. White papers can be government documents or business proposals or from other organizations.
Working Paper - An early version of a future publication. It is not uncommon for a researcher to "publish" a working paper announcing their research ideas in hopes of receiving critical responses. Those responses will be taken into consideration and answered in the final published journal article. Often similar to a paper delivered at a conference.