Journal Articles, Books, and Patents
If you are new to engineering, you may not know exactly what a journal article, a book, or a patent is. This guide explains how to recognize journal articles, books, and patents, and what type of infomation is in these three types of materials.
Journal Articles
- Articles have been critically read and revised by peers of the researcher (peer-review).
- Articles present research. (Generally there is an abstract, an introduction, a methods section describing the experiment or study, data analysis/results, discussion, and conclusion.)
- Usually articles havea title, a journal title, volume number, an issue number, date, and page numbers.
- In the following example, the volume is 505, and the issue is 1-2.
Mechanical properties of basalt fiber reinforced geopolymeric concrete under impact loading
Li, Weimin ; Xu, Jinyu Source: Materials Science and Engineering A , v 505, n 1-2, p 178-186, April 15, 2009
Books
- Books present selected facts know at the time of publication.
- They include textbooks and handbooks of data and formulas.
Patents
Patents protect the intellectual property of inventors.They are legal documents that often have drawings.
Now that you are familiar with journal articles, books, and patents, where to find them?
Journal Articles--go to a library database such as Compendex or Web of Science. Use the FindText icon in each record 
to determine if the library subscribes to the journal containing the article.
Books--go to the UT Libraries Catalog to determine what books the library owns.
Patents--For U.S., go to freepatentsonline.com or uspto.gov. For international, search ep.espacenet.com .
If you need additional help, stop by the Research Assistance desk in Commons North, or email the Architecture and Engineering Librarian, Jeanine Williamson.