The documents published in journals are mainly academic papers, while those published in non-academic journals are mainly documents, reports, speeches, experiences and knowledge, which can only be used as academic research materials but not as papers. Because the selection of "General Introduction" is based on "a large number of articles published", "a large number of articles included" and "a large number of citations", it does not emphasize the boundary between academic journals and non-academic journals, and naturally there is no strict distinction.
Specifically, the summary is academic and non-academic, mainly in two aspects, one is the nature of the journal, and the other is the purpose of the journal. Periodicals are published by periodical publishing units established according to law. Periodical publishing units must be approved by the General Administration of Press and Publication, hold a unified serial publication number in China, and obtain a periodical publishing license. Journals are devoted to publishing papers.
At present, there are two authoritative versions in China to identify the core journals published in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). First, the Citation Report of China Sci-tech Journals (hereinafter referred to as the Citation Report) published once a year by China Institute of Sci-tech Information; The other is the Compendium of China Core Journals (hereinafter referred to as Compendium) jointly edited and published by Peking University Library and Peking University Library Journal Work Research Association.
Summary of Main Contents is published irregularly, the second edition is published in 1996, and the 2000 edition is published in 2000. The compendium includes Chinese periodicals in various disciplines such as social science and natural science. Among them, the identification of core journals is comprehensively evaluated through five indicators. The selection principle of statistical source journals in Citation Report and the identification of core journals in Summary of Contents are based on different methods, so the core journals defined by them (referring to science and technology) are not completely consistent.