A "periodical" is a publication that appears at regular intervals (or periodically). This could be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annually. (Some libraries refer to them as "serials" because they're issued serially, that is, one after the other). A newspaper is an example of a periodical published daily (see "Newspapers" under the Primary Sources tab). Scholarly journals are often published monthly or quarterly (see "Scholarly Journals" under the Secondary Sources tab). A magazine is usually published weekly or monthly.
Magazines published at the time of your research interest can be invaluable primary sources. Magazine articles generally cover a wide variety of topics of interest to people of the time or that deal with current events of the day. This can provide you with insight into how people learned about events as they were happening and how these events were framed and understood by writers, journalists and others.
