Most periodicals fall into one of three categories: popular, trade/professional, and scholarly/academic. Online journals can be any of the three categories. So examine those carefully. As with the rest of your writing, the appropriateness of the level of specialization of your information source will be determined by the situationyour assignment and the topic you have chosen. You can find out information about the journals usually by reading the inside of the front or back covers. This will usually give you a good indication about the type of journal you are reviewing. This course requires you to use scholarly journals to synthesize your written report and oral presentation. The differences between various periodicals are described in the following slides. Popular magazines such as Newsweek, Time, Discover, Natural Geographicinform a very general readership about a variety of topics; consequently, they are less likely to provide a detailed look at a topic. They should not be discounted, however. Their articles provide orientation to current events, and on occasion their commentaries and poll results are useful resources. For example, Discover Magazine explores new and uncharted territories and explains the phenomena you wonder about. It makes sciences come alive and satisfies your need to know in a language you can understand. periodicals are dedicated to a specific subject, but instead of reporting and discussing cutting-edge research, the purpose is more to inform an educated audience interested in this subject, disseminate information, or summarize recent works. That audience may includebut is not limited toreaders of scholarly journals. The information, which may or may not be highly specialized and detailed, might also be easier to read, but the level of expertise of the authors will vary. Some writers are specialists, but others are general assignment writers and freelancerssecondary sources, in other words. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, is recognized as the definitive, broad-based review journal in the disciplines of microbiology, immunology, and molecular and cellular biology, keeping readers abreast of the latest findings about bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other higher eukaryotes.

Contain highly specialized information written by experts in a given field. The primary purpose of such publications is to share scholarship of original research findings with others in the field. It is important to note that all scholarly journals are not respected equally. Many in biology consider the journals Science and Nature as the definitive journals. . The journal Cell, established in 1974, keeps pace with the times by advancing and disseminating fundamental knowledge in a variety of areas such as "cell biology, molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology, virology and microbiology, cancer, human genetics, systems biology, signaling, and disease." Articles report on significant findings in these areas, making the journal invaluable reading for busy researchers. Developmental Biology is a bimonthly journal from the Society for Developmental Biology that contains the results of original scientific research and occasional literature review articles. Announcements to the SDB members and proceedings of the SDB meetings are also available.