Terminology Alert: Periodicity/Frequency of Issues in Periodicals/ Journals/Serials

While writing an article on Library and Information Science Journals published in India I was faced with terminology problem for defining periodicity/frequency of issues. Tried Googling but did not get clarity…Infact ended up getting more confused.

 

Bi-weekly and Semi-weekly is the same – periodicity being twice a week as per Google featured snippets. Biweekly means once every two weeks or twice a week! How is once every two weeks (1 issue in 15days) and twice a week is (2 issues in 7days) same?

Source: https://www.google.co.in/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=SV_qV-rcE4OCoAP68oSwCA#q=semi+weekly

 

So requested a couple of senior LIS professionals (Dr A L Moorthy & Dr P Divakar) who kindly explained and made it clear! Sharing the same with followers of my blog!

The ‘frequency of publication’ varies from country to country, perhaps depending on British English or American English.

 

Commonwealth Countries (like Australia, New Zealand, India) generally follow the British English. In India bi-weekly means twice a week but in North America bi-weekly is once in 2 weeks.  (Example: Indian Railway Time table, a bi-weekly train runs two times in a week)

 

It is observed that America dominates the scholarly environment, hence American conventions and definitions on terms like periodicity/frequency will be followed as is given below:

 

S No	Abbreviation	Periodicity	Frequency	Number
1.	d	Daily	once per day	365/12
2.	i	——–	three times per week	156/12
3.	c	Semi-Weekly	two times per week (‘half of a week’)	104/12
4.	w	Weekly	once per week	52/12
5.	j	——–	three times per month	36/12
6.	e	Bi-Weekly	every two weeks	26/12
7.	s	Semi-Monthly = Fortnight	two times per month (‘half of a month’)	24/12
8.	m	Monthly	once per month	12/12
9.	b	Bi-Monthly	every two months	6/12
10.	q	Quarterly	four times per year	4/12
11.	t	——–	three times per year	3/12
12.	f	Semi-Annual = Bi-Annual	two times per year (‘half of a year’)	2/12
13.	a	Annual	once per year	1/12
14.	g	Biennial	every two years	1/24
15.	h	Triennial	every three years	1/36
16.	z	——–	KNOWN: other frequencies (quadrennial – every four years, quinquennial – every five years, etc.)	1/48, 1/60 etc
17.	k	Irregular	known to be so (no determinable frequency)
18.	u	——–	UNKNOWN other frequencies

 

Request all LIS professionals to read it and get in touch with me at AchalaMunigalRao@gmail.com if there is any discrepency found.

Acknowledgements:

• Dr P Divakar Former Librarian, CCMB, Hyd
• Dr A L Moorthy, Former Director-DESIDOC & Chief Consultant (Inf Sci), BrahMos Aerospace, Hyd

Source: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/staff/dts/holdings_rec_mgt/irism_freqcode.html

 

Terminology Alert: Periodicity/Frequency of Issues in Journals by Dr Achala Munigal is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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