On the library homepage, click on the Databases link under the main search box.
Browse databases alphabetically, by subject, or by type. Check out the featured databases.
All these databases are accessible remotely - if you are off-campus when you access a database via the library website, you'll be asked to sign in with your WPI login and password.
The search operators listed below can help you refine your search.
|
Operator |
Example |
Result |
|
AND |
games AND learning |
Narrows the search to results containing both terms |
|
OR |
cats OR felines |
Broadens the search to results containing either or both terms |
|
NOT |
Stonewall NOT Jackson |
Excludes results containing the second word |
|
“ ” |
“citizen science” |
Retrieves results containing the exact phrase |
|
? |
Wom?n |
Wildcard: Retrieves results with the words woman and women |
|
* |
educat* |
Truncation: Retrieves results for educate, educator, education, educational, etc. |
These search operators work in most library databases.
For GoogleScholar, use a minus sign instead of NOT. GoogleScholar does not use wildcard or truncation searches.
ScienceDirect provides full text access to more than 2000 science, social science, engineering and management scholarly journals.
On the search results page, use the "Article type" filter on the left to choose "Review articles" or "Research articles"
ScienceDirect Article Type |
Explanation |
|
Review articles |
Substantial overview of original research, usually with a comprehensive reference list. Note: Not a book review. |
|
Research articles |
Complete report on original research. |
Learn more about the article types available in ScienceDirect: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27955/supporthub/sciencedirect/
Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Scopus delivers the most comprehensive overview of the world’s research output in the fields of Science, Technology, Medicine, Social Sciences, and Arts & Humanities.
On the search results page, use the "Document type" filter on the left to choose "Article" or "Review"
Scopus Dcoument Type |
Explanation |
|
Article |
Original research/primary article |
|
Review |
Overview of original research, usually with a comprehensive reference list. Not a book review. |
PubMed comprises more than 29 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
On the search results page, go to the "Article Type" filter on the left.
PubMed Artilce Type |
Explanation |
|
Clinical Trial |
A work that reports on the results of a clinical study in which participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions so that researchers can evaluate the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes. |
|
Meta-Analysis |
Works consisting of studies using a quantitative method of combining the results of independent studies (usually drawn from the published literature) and synthesizing summaries and conclusions which may be used to evaluate therapeutic effectiveness, plan new studies, etc. It is often an overview of clinical trials. |
| Randomized Controlled Trial | A work that reports on a clinical trial that involves at least one test treatment and one control treatment, concurrent enrollment and follow-up of the test- and control-treated groups, and in which the treatments to be administered are selected by a random process, such as the use of a random-numbers table. |
| Review | An article published after examination of published material on a subject, most often a review of the current literature. |
| Systematic Review | A review of primary literature in health and health policy that attempts to identify, appraise, and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets specified eligibility criteria to answer a given research question. Its conduct uses explicit methods aimed at minimizing bias in order to produce more reliable findings regarding the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation that can be used to inform decision making. |
PLOS is focused on medical and life sciences, and features a suite of journals: PLOS ONE, PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Clinical Trials, and PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
1. To get started, choose a PLOS journal to search, such as PLOS Biology or PLOS Medicine.
2. On the search results page, you can add additional PLOS journals to your search:
3. Then go to the "Article Type" filter on the left.
PLOS Dcoument Type |
Explanation |
|
Research Article |
Original research/primary article |
|
Review |
Overview of original research, usually with a comprehensive reference list. Not a book review. |
GoogleScholar searches for scholarly literature (including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports) on all topic areas. Use GoogleScholar to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, prepublication repositories and universities.
A broad search tool – search for scholarly papers on a variety of topics
Find journal articles, conference papers, theses, and more
Use the Full Text Finder link to access the full text of sources
Use the Advanced search box to refine your search. For example:
The search above will yield the following search string:
