• OneSearch – the tab is a great place to start searching through the library’s resources in one simple multidisciplinary search interface. The results will display books, articles, government documents, etc.
  **To find full-text articles that are not available in other databases or online, use OneSearch + Worldcat, type in the title of the article (title in quotes), then Search and your article will appear indicting it is not available but you can use Delivery+ to obtain it. (make sure you are logged in). 
• Libraries' Catalog – locate any item that is available in our libraries, including books, journals, newspapers, and audio/visual materials.
• Journals- is a database of electronic journals that are indexed in databases or found online. (Cannot search for articles, citation is needed)
• Reserve - or Course Reserve: a collection of books or articles (pdfs) set aside at the Circulation Desk by your professor.
• Research Tips – an online guide designed to help you perform research at the University at Buffalo’s University Libraries, includes citation help. Center for Excellence in Writing - 17 Norton Hall
• My Account & Delivery+ –  use for book renewal and interlibrary loan. Journal articles and book chapters are delivered electronically to your email and physical items are made available for pick-up at the UB library of your choice. (free of charge)

Borrowing/Loan Periods: Your UB Card serves as your library card. Current UB students, faculty and staff may use their cards to check out books and other materials at any campus library.

Self-check out kiosk/Check-out App - instructions for downloading the app and using the self-check out kiosk.

UB Print Anywhere: UB students receive a semesterly quota of free pages to print assignments at any of 40 print station kiosks. Learn how to easily print your assignments from any computer, a computing site, your smartphone, a USB drive and more.

Keyword searching:

Keywords break down your topic or research question into the overall main ideas; these main ideas become simple keywords which you may use to search a library database. The keywords you choose for searching have a large impact on how many relevant records are retrieved.

TIP : Use a thesaurus to help you find synonyms for your keywords

Understanding the research process and the structure of a research article will help you to identify scholarly articles.

Scholarly/peer reviewed articles: 

• A formal process in journal publishing  
• A group of reviewers and editor evaluate the article for quality and accuracy.
• What to look for: author affiliations, abstract, methodology, results, bibliography 

Trade Journals: fall between the category of magazines and journals, the focus is on industry, a product, or business. Written by experts in the field or a member of an society or organization. . Ex. GA Document, Architect, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Planning Magazine

News/Newspapers:
The main goal is to provide information to a broad audience.
- Authors are usually free lance writers or journalist, but at times can be scholars.
ex. Buffalo News

Popular magazines:
The main goal is to entertain, promote a viewpoint or to sell products.
-Authors are journalists, not experts.
ex. Vogue or Sports Illustrated

Scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal articles follow a structure and typically contain these features: 

• Abstract: an overview of the entire article’s content. It gives a brief description of the problem or hypothesis, the participants, methodology, statistical analysis, results of study, and the implications of the study.
• Introduction: Background to the research topic/problem and identifies research questions (purpose statement).
• Methods: A detailed description on how the data was collected and what instruments/measurements were used.
• Analysis: Explains how the data was analyzed.
• Results: The findings or results of the research problem/study – usually in graphs or charts. Understanding the tables and charts in the results section is extremely important in understanding the article.
• Discussion: The implications of the results, comparing results to other studies, hints to new research needed.
• References: The cited articles used throughout the paper. Could also include a literature review or the literature review might be detailed in a section after the introduction.

Quick overview of an article: -Identity: Who, what, when, where?
Who is the intended audience? How were the research questions identified and answered? How new/old is the literature on the topic? Are there subtopics within the article?

Notes to take about the article: -Words or ideas that repeat themselves -Conflicts or contradictions in the information -How is the topic relevant to your research question?

How to read a research article:

If asked to review an article, read over carefully:
1.Read critically - Did the author answer the research question? Was the problem solved? Are there any questions that arose from the reading that the author did not answer or solve? Was the data presented logically and understandably? Are there any omissions or limitations?

2. Read creatively - Were the ideas presented informative? If you were to continue the research, what other points would you address?

3. Take notes and underline key points made by the author.

After reading the article, can you summerize it succinctly? 
Write down the main idea and the supporting statements or subpoints of the main idea.