Academic publication types

Blog posts are freely accessible scientific communication channels made available on the web. Exchanges between the author and other individuals are made possible via the comments section. The aim is to facilitate the quick and open access dissemination of research findings or to allow for the presentation and discussion of argumentative positions on a specific scientific topic.

Subject-specific scientific blogs can be found, for example, under Science Blogs.

In law, legal commentaries are explanations of the paragraphs or articles contained in one or more laws for use in practice or for the purpose of study.

Publication form: monograph

Conference reports / conference transcripts / proceedings contain the written versions of presentations held at an event.

Formal publication type: edited volume

Conference contributions can, however, also appear in journals.

Dissertations / theses are detailed academic papers that address a specific issue. Doctoral and habilitation theses both fall under this category. In some cases, dissertations are also understood to include other papers produced for the attainment of an academic degree, including diploma, Bachelor's and Master's theses.

Bachelor's and Master's theses can primarily be found as electronic documents in repositories.

Habilitation (post-doctoral) and doctoral dissertations, on the other hand, are also published by publishing houses in the form of monographs.

In edited volumes or collective works, individual chapters/contributions/articles are written by different authors. Editors (which can also be institutions) compile these into a complete work. The individual contributions relate to a common theme and can treat it from different perspectives.

ZHAW swisscovery, for example, is suitable for searching for academic books (monographs, collective works, etc.).

Figure: Edited volume cover and the most important bibliographic information for the contribution (Zotero screenshot)

Encyclopaedias / dictionaries are alphabetically arranged reference works for terms used in individual or several scientific disciplines. They help you to gain an overview of a topic, define a term or find keywords for your search.

Electronic reference works, sorted according to subject area, can be found on the University Library website.

Publication form: edited volume, contribution in an edited volume

Essays raise research questions and represent a subjective viewpoint or highlight individual cases in an argumentative manner.

Publication form: journal article, monograph, contribution in an edited volume

Handbooks are reference works with detailed entries on terms and concepts of a (sub-)discipline.

Publication form: monograph, edited volume

A journal appears periodically (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and contains articles from various authors on a specific field. Historically, journals established themselves in the academic world because their regular publication meant that new findings could be disseminated more quickly than is the case with books.

In order to ensure the quality of academic articles, they are often subjected to a peer review process. This peer review process determines the general acceptance or rejection of a research paper and provides the authors with instructions for corrections and additions that must be made prior to publication. Just how rigorously articles are rejected in practice as well as the procedure and criteria applied for the peer review process vary from journal to journal.

Journals (electronic and print) are listed in the ZHAW swisscovery university catalogue.
You can find journal articles in ZHAW swisscovery, in specialist databases and academic search engines such as Google Scholar.

Figure: Cover and the most important bibliographic information (Zotero screenshot)

See Review, research synthesis