AED199: Research
Key library links
- Everything – 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 Everything and select Everything UB + SUNY + Worldcat, type in the title of the article (title in quotes), then Search, on the left side check Under Refine Your Results, click on Expand My Results, then Search - this will expand your 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 - 209 Baldy 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
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
Articles
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.
- the content in scholarly articles analyze, review, and interpret a primary sources (raw data) or other secondary sources
Anatomy of a scholarly article:
- 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.
- Discussion/conclusion: 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?
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.
Popular magazines: opinion based - ex. Time magazine --- public opinion on a topic
Finding articles
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowComprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database. More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new windowArchitecture-related research. More InfoPartial Full-Text UB ONLY
- Everything This link opens in a new windowThe "Everything" search engine, powered by Ex Libris Primo VE, provides a Google-like experience, allowing researchers to use one search box to discover reliable library content. More InfoUB ONLY
- Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new windowFull-text entries from encyclopedias and reference works published by Gale Group More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new windowComplete one-stop source for information on social issues. More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY