In addition to background information and books you will probably want to find periodical articles on your topic or issue.
Periodicals are continuous publications such as journals, newspapers, or magazines.
In the library these terms are often used interchangeably. By using an online database. Databases are electronic indexes containing records which represent periodical articles that have been published. It's important to remember that the information resources you will locate in periodical databases differ from resources found when searching the Internet using a search engine. Databases are resources that are paid for by the University, and which contain citations to journal articles, many of which are considered scholarly.