For liquids with high viscosity and low thermal conductivity, viscous dissipation can cause appreciable errors in rheological property measurements. Here, the influences of both viscous dissipation and fluid inertia on the property measurements in oscillatory sliding plate rheometry are investigated. For Newtonian fluids, Bird (1965) solved the combined problem analytically, but only for high frequencies. Here his solution is extended to any frequencies. Also, the equations of motion and energy are solved for linear viscoelastic fluids, and new analytical solutions for the velocity and temperature profiles are given. In both Newtonian and linear viscoelastic fluids, the temperature rise in the gap increases with frequency. The location of the maximum temperature shifts from the mid-plane at low frequency towards the moving wall at high frequency. The fluid inertia increases the viscous dissipation in both fluids. By solving the combined problem, this paper simplifies rheometer design by providing one unified criterion for avoiding measurement errors. Operating limits an presented graphically for minimizing the effects of both fluid inertia and viscous dissipation in oscillatory sliding plate rheometry.