It's been a commonplace so far to list skill magazines in the notable loot sections, and I'd like to argue this practice should be officially abolished. The way I understand it, there are four points to determine if an item is notable:
•Rarity
•Value
•Use in repeatable quests
•Unusual quantities
Skill magazines fit in none of those categories. As such, they simply don't belong in the notable loot sections.
One argument listed in favor of keeping them notable is to compare them to skill books. The books, however, are rare and have a limited maximum availability (save, for the inclusion of books in the random loot of the workbench crate in HH). They also, unlike magazines, books have a permanent effect.
Another argument is that magazines are particularly useful as they help passing skill checks, and as such are a great help for people, specially in the beginning. To that I say that there is already a list of where those can be found. It's more efficient to search for the magazines of the specific skills you want in that than randomly browsing the nearby area's articles in hopes of finding a magazine of that particular skill you need to boost.
More importantly, skill magazines are in practice only really useful in the early stages of the game. Afterwards, as skills approach the maximum they become increasingly less useful. Coupled with the fact they're remarkably common and cheap, it's far more likely the player will be constantly carrying a 5+ stock of every magazine after a short while, making the need of actively searching for them even less remote. Not to mention the fact that they are become craftable with OWB.
Next, the argument that the articles are better with them than without. I say they are not, as they simply clutter up the lists, which should be by its very definition short and objective. They're supposed to list the things you absolutely shouldn't leave without, and magazines are quite frankly not only useless, but also actually an annoyance for the better part of the game. Sure they are weightless, but they clutter up the inventory (specially the AID section) and make it unnecessarily harder to find specific items you want.
Lastly, I'd like to point out that most arguments in favor of keeping them could be extended to items I'm sure nobody will argue it's notable, such as ordinary chems like mentats or even beer. Those don't belong in the list, just like magazines don't.
"Perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away"
Limmiegirl 
Talk! ♪ 22:28, April 22, 2012 (UTC)
Comments
I agree 100% for the removal of the magazines from the notable loot sections. -- Bacon-Man Talk to me goose! 22:30, April 22, 2012 (UTC)
To me they're effectively the same as Chems like Buffout, mentants, and Jet and should have the same rules applied, whichever way one goes the other should. They're stuff you might go looking for to solve a specific problem, but aren't rare. Agent c 22:32, April 22, 2012 (UTC)