Abstract: A summary of a paper that provides an overview of the information. It is normally found at the beginning of an article. 

ACT-UP: To ACT UP is to behave in a way that is outside established norms. The ACT UP method gets its name from the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. This is a method of source evaluation that incorporates grass roots social justice concepts to the practice of assessing the quality of our sources. Acronym for Authority, Currency, Truth, Unbiased, and Privilege.  

Advanced Search: A feature that allows for more specific searching when compared to a basic or simple search. An advanced search allows for separate keywords, filtering results by date or database, and more.  

Article: A written work touching on a specific topic. This can be in reference to both popular sources and scholarly ones. Most often written in sections titled Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Discussion, Conclusion, and References. 

Article Record: Information about an item in a catalog or database. It includes facets such as the article title, author, and the source name.

Author: The writer of a book, article, etc., To whom the authority of a piece is given. 

Authority: In the context of ACT-UP, taking into consideration the background of the author when evaluating sources.

Background Information: The context or baseline information about a general topic or idea.

Basic Search: See simple search. 

Bias: An inclination for or against something. Everyone has bias, but some information can be more biased than others, meaning they can misuse or eliminate important information in order to persuade the reader. 

Bibliography: A formatted list of citations of sources consulted in a paper. They are also called a Works Cited or References. 

Boolean Operators: The words “AND” “OR” and “NOT” are Boolean operators. These words used in a search can help define the bounds of your search and set a relationship between your keywords. 

Book: A written work in a physical form, consisting of multiple sheets of paper bound together. 

Catalog: A searchable database of a library's collection, including books, eBooks, journals, and other materials. 

Call Number: A combination of letters and numbers that indicates the physical location of a library material.  

Citation: A way to give credit to ideas, thoughts, or data that is not yours. It provides the author, title, and publication date from the source of the information. Common styles of citation are APA, Chicago, and MLA, used depending on one’s discipline.  

Citation Manager: A software tool that allows users to organize, collect, and cite sources. UB libraries provide students access to EndNote.  

Conclusion: The final section of a paper where the author’s main points are summed up, as well as providing space for the author to discuss the implications of their paper.

Context:

Controlled Vocabulary: A list of predefined terms used to describe the content of each item (book, journal article) in a database. 

Copyright: Provides legal ownership over how a work can be reproduced, published, sold, or distributed. It protects the author’s work through a set of legal principles. Laws vary around the world, but UB abides by the United States' copyright laws.  

Course Reserve: Materials the library keeps separate from the general collection at the request of a professor. These materials typically come with a shortened loan period so that the students in the class all have a chance to use it. You can access it here.

Creative Commons: A form of copyright license where the author allows their work to be shared, built on, and used. There are different types of Creative Commons licenses, where the author can set the conditions of how they would like their work to be used.  

Currency: In the context of ACT UP, it is taking into consideration the date when information was published. 

Data: Figures, statistics, facts, and information collected for reference or analysis. 

Database: An organized and searchable collection of objects or materials. Ex) Amazon.com, the UB Library catalog, Academic Search Complete 

Delivery+/Interlibrary Loan (ILL): Delivery+ is the free delivery service the University at Buffalo Libraries use to provide library materials for active faculty, staff and students. Delivery+ can be used to request materials from the UB Libraries, or a request can be sent out to libraries worldwide. An interlibrary loan is when a Delivery+ material is coming from a non-UB library.  

Discussion: The part of an article where the author analyzes, contextualizes, and explains their findings.  

Discipline: An area of knowledge relating to a course of a program of study. Your major refers to the field of study. 

DOI (Digital Object Identifier): A stable and persistent URL assigned to a published object that never changes. Most scholarly or peer-reviewed articles have one. 

Domain: The end of a URL that identifies the nature of a website. Ex) .org, .com, .edu, .gov 

eBook: A digitized version of a book.  

et al.: Short for the Latin term “et alia,” meaning “and others.” It is used at the end of a citation when there are multiple authors.

Field of Study: see discipline 

Full Text/Full-text: The entire text of an article.  

Genre: The style of a material, defined by a set of characteristics. Ex) fiction and non-fiction, horror, fantasy, science fiction.  

Hanging Indent: A style of indentation used on some works cited pages where all the lines of text are indented except the first one. 

In-text Citations: A way to reference another work within the body of the text. They show where the ideas or facts are coming from.  

Introduction: A section of an article where the author can broadly present their topics and state their thesis. It is different from an abstract, as it does not summarize the paper. It instead provides background and context. 

ISBN (International Standard Book Number): A unique 10- or 13-digit code that acts as a fingerprint for a book. It helps distinguish different editions, formats, and versions of a specific title. 

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number): An 8-digit code used to uniquely identify serial publications/journals of all kinds, regardless of if they are online or in print format.   

Issue Number: The number that identifies a published work within a set volume.  

Journal: A publication that contains multiple scholarly articles. Some are peer-reviewed. 

Keywords: Words or phrases used in a search. 

LibGuide: Online research guides created by librarians to help students navigate resources for specific subjects or courses. 

Library Reference: A meeting with a librarian where they can help you with research. Librarians can help you find and evaluate resources, use databases, and more. 

Magazine: A periodical containing related pieces by different authors touching on a common theme.  

Methodology: The way the author(s) of an article conducted their research, such as the approach used as well as the techniques and procedures that the author employed to look at their topic. Think, quantitative or qualitative, and the different types of research methods used, depending on the circumstances 

Newspaper: A publication that contains news, as well as opinion pieces, advertisements. Usually published frequently as to cover current events, global or local. It may also be called "news."

OneSearch: A type of search that looks across all of the library's materials and databases.  

Open Access: A publication that is made available for free.  

Page Number: The number assigned to the page of a book, eBook, periodical, etc. Helpful to note for citations.  

Peer-Review: A process an article goes through prior to being published where a group of experts evaluate the work. These types of articles may also be called scholarly articles. 

Permalink: A URL that will return you directly to the search result. The link will not change.  

Periodical: A collection of written works that comes out on a schedule. Examples include magazines and newspapers, or academic journals.  

Phrase Searching: A searching technique that helps narrow down search results through grouping words in the order you want them to appear. It is helpful when you have a keyword comprised of two or more words. Ex) “social media”, “artificial intelligence” 

Plagiarism: When someone presents somebody else's idea or work as their own. 

Popular Source: Publications intended for a general audience, such as newspapers, magazines, social media posts, or websites. These are typically what you will get from a simple search on a search engine.

Postionality:

Primary Source: A written account of an event or period of time from someone who was there, or a record that was published during the time period being looked at. Ex) a diary, newspaper article, or census data

Privilege: 

Publication Date: The date in which a written work is made available, published. Helpful to note for a citation. 

References: see bibliography 

Research Question: A clearly defined question that guides the research and the construction of a paper. The question is what the paper looks to answer or discuss. It is similar to a thesis statement.

Search Engine: 

Simple Search: Also called a basic search. It is comprised of one search bar but users can implement some searching parameters in place. This could be the use of a Boolean Operator or putting quotation marks around a phrase. 

Scholarly Source: A material written by scholars or experts in their field. These are reputable works, but they may not always be peer-reviewed.  

Search Results: The materials that a database pulls up after inputting a search.  

Secondary Source: A written piece discussing an event or time period in retrospect.  

Skimming: A way to look over a written piece, namely looking over the abstract and the results to see if the piece falls in line with what you are hoping to use. 

Social Media: 

Subject Heading: Assigned topics from a predetermined list and are linked to other articles in the database with the same topic. The use of a subject heading searching in a database can lead to a more precise search.

Table of Contents: A list of chapters or sections in a written material with their page number, typically found at the front. 

Thesis Statement: A sentence (or two), typically at the end of an introduction paragraph, that states the main purpose of the paper. It is similar to a research question.

Three Point Attribution: A way to cite an image that has the image’s title, creator, and license number. Used for Creative Commons images. Ex) “Library books” by Sophia Finger, licensed under CC BY 2.0 

Title: The name of a material.

Topic:

Truncation: The use of symbols to aid in searching. Helpful when the spelling of a keyword changes or when you are interested in multiple keywords with the same prefix. Searching teen* will pull up results that include teens, teenager, teenagers, etc.

Truthfulness:

URL: Uniform resource locator, the address for a web page or a website. 

Volume: One book in a set of related books or within a specific journal. Sometimes a collection of periodicals.  

Website: A group of web pages of related content, controlled by a person or organization.   

Works Cited: see Bibliography