Periodicals (also known as serials ) are publications printed "periodically", either daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or on an annual basis. Journals,  magazines, and newspapers are different types of periodicals. Examples of periodicals include the following:

• NEWSPAPERS - New York Times
• POPULAR MAGAZINES - Time or Newsweek
• GENERAL INTEREST JOURNALS - National Geographic
• SCHOLARLY JOURNALS/PEER-REVIEWED- Journal of Experimental Psychology, New England Journal of Medicine

Because of their up-to-date information, articles from popular and general interest periodical publications make great resources for choosing topics. However, scholarly or peer-reviewed journals, because they often require specialized knowledge or vocabulary, should not be used for selecting topics and instead used later in the research process when you have established a better understanding of your topic. For more detailed descriptions of different categories of periodicals go to Evaluating Resources - How to Evaluate Periodicals.

You may search in the following ways:

• Keyword search example: journal and religion
• Title search example: journal of psychology and human sexuality
• Title search example: new york times
• Subject heading search example: business--periodicals
• Subject heading search example: buffalo (n.y.)--periodicals

Frequently Used Databases for Newspapers

Newspapers are good sources for up-to-date as well as historical information about events and issues. Databases such as

• LexisNexis Academic
• Factiva
• ABI/INFORM Global
• World News Connection (WNC)

are excellent sources for locating newspaper articles from leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Go to Newspaper Collections in the Arts & Sciences Libraries for information on currently received newspaper titles, finding newspapers in BISON and more.

Go to Research Assistant: Finding Articles for information on locating journals in BISON locating full-text online journals, and locating journal articles databases.

Browsing Current Print Periodical Collections

It is also a good idea to browse current print periodical collections to see what the UB Libraries own, and to stay up-to-date in your subject area.

Current and back issues of newspapers are located on the third floor of Lockwood Library.

Current periodicals on Humanities and Social Sciences are located in the current periodicals area, on the third floor of Lockwood Library. The periodicals are placed in an alphabetical order by title.

Current periodicals on Science and Engineering are located in the current periodicals area, on the third floor of Science and Engineering Library.

Current periodicals on popular or general subjects are located in the current periodicals area, on the main floor of Undergraduate Library.