The type of document can give an indication of the scope and content. A textbook will normally give a good introduction to a subject. Conference proceedings will give an overview of the state of the art. Leaflets and pamphlets can not be considered to treat a subject in depth. A PhD thesis will reflect high quality research over a longer period but subject coverage is usually not very broad.
Books tend to give a broader coverage than journal articles but the latter tend to be more up to date.
How to determine the type of document from a citation
Knowing the type of document is also important to get to the full text. The library catalogue will tell you where to find a book or a journal, but will give no hits when you type in the title of an individual chapter or article. From a citation you can see which type of document it describes, although this is not always very clear.
Most bibliographic databases will show you the records in a tagged format. Look for PT (Publication type) or DT (Document Type). If you get references from other sources (for instance a list of references at the bottom of an article), you should look at the structure of the citation. Below are some examples of citations to the three main document types.
Journal articles
Books and other monographs
Book chapters
Some hints
- The presence of a first and last page number indicates that the document is either a book chapter or a journal article.
- Volume and issue details indicate a journal article.
- A city and the name of a publisher indicate a book or book chapter. For journal articles the publisher is never mentioned, only the jounal title is given.
- Journal titles are often abbreviated.