Use periodical indexes and databases to locate articles. When in doubt about which index or database to use, select an index that covers the subject area, as listed here:
When selecting appropriate databases, it is important to know what kind of information you need: peer-reviewed articles, news, data, statistics, images, etc. Read the index description and select accordingly.
Once you have selected an index, proceed by entering keywords in the search box. Add synonyms, equivalent terms or variants. Combine these terms using Boolean operators (and, or, not), truncation, or wild card to best represent your topic.
The search will retrieve a list of citations to articles.
To find articles that are not available full text, you will need to note the full citation information (journal title, date of publication, article title, author, volume, issue, page number) and try one of the following:
Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)'s, indexes Defense Department literature and links to some full text. Technical Reports are reports created and published to the collection by organizations funded by the Department of Defense to perform research in a variety of industries and disciplines. Technical Reports found on DTIC's public website will only include reports designated as unclassified and unlimited information.
Index of government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information. Users must register for a free account. Many reports are pay-per-view, so search the web or specific agency site, or our library catalog, or use ILL for access.
Gateway to over 50 million pages of authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. government agencies, including research and development results. Science.gov is an official website of the U.S. government providing ready access to the massive stores of federally funded scientific research results, without needing to know which agency funded the research. Research results include scientific and technical reports, peer-reviewed scholarly publications, digital data, software, conference presentations and proceedings, and other scientific and technical information that federal agencies publish resulting from their research investments.
A collaborative project to digitize, archive, and provide persistent and unrestricted access to federal technical reports issued prior to 1975.
From the Transportation Research Board at the National Academy of Sciences, indexes transportation literature and links to some full text.
Provides free patent searching of U.S. and European registrations. Benefits include patents in PDF format as well as hyperlinked classification searching.
Search and display U.S. patents 1790 to the present using the technology that powers Google Book Search, with the ability to scroll and zoom in on text and illustrations.
A worldwide, open-access, free patent informatics resource. Search and retrieve the full-text of millions of patent documents from US, Europe, Australia and WIPO, their status and counterparts up to 70 countries. Free PDF downloads for US, Australian, PCT and European patent documents.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) PATENTSCOPE Search Service enables users search fulltext of over 1.6 million published international patent applications.
Patent searching using unique technology to help inventors and patent practitioners. WPI users need to register first. Anyone with an @wpi.edu email address (including alumni) can register for a free account at: http://www.searchrealfast.com/wpi
One of the world’s most complete databases covering patent authorities across the globe. Search and filter across a multitude of fields to find what you need. Includes text, PDF and images, and more than six times the information found on Wikipedia.
Includes full text and full image U.S. patents and patent applications.
WPI Library Search (the main search box on the library homepage) searches across most of the library's resources at once and can be used to find books, articles, and more.
A powerful search tool to streamline your library research. Entering terms into a single search box yields results that include: books and e-books, research and news articles, project reports, electronic theses and dissertations, archival materials, patents, open access collections and more.
Term |
Example |
Result |
AND |
robot AND ethics |
Narrows the search to entries containing both terms. |
OR |
AI OR "artificial intelligence" |
Broadens the search to entries containing either term. |
NOT |
bat NOT baseball |
Excludes entries containing the second term. |
“ ” |
“artificial intelligence” |
Retrieves results containing the exact phrase in quotes. |
? |
globali?ation |
Wildcard: Retrieves both globalization and globalisation. |
* |
robot* |
Truncation: Retrieves robot, robots, robotics, etc. |
Save time by creating a personal account for each database you use and set up alerts for your searches. You will get an email each time new publications fit your initial search to help you keep up with what is new in your topic of interest.
Electronic version of Engineering Index, covering literature in various engineering disciplines. Comprising journals, conference proceedings, dissertations, standards, books, and recently preprints, Compendex content is sourced from thousands of publishers from around the world, including major engineering societies such as IEEE, ASME, SAE and ACM.
Abstracts from the Compendex database, which includes the electronic version of Engineering Index, with links to full text articles, patents, standards and handbooks in scientific, applied science, technical and engineering disciplines. Comprising journals, conference proceedings, dissertations, standards, books, and recently preprints, Compendex content is sourced from thousands of publishers from around the world, including major engineering societies such as IEEE, ASME, SAE and ACM.
Google search for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports on all topic areas. Use to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, prepublication repositories and universities.
The IEEE Xplore digital library is a resource for discovery of scientific and technical content published by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners. It contains the.full text of all IEEE and IEE journal articles, conference papers, and standards. Tutorials are available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplorehelp/ieee-xplore-training/video-tutorials
Online archive of eBooks and complete backruns of scholarly journals in a variety of academic fields.
With ProQuest One Academic, four core multi-disciplinary products – ProQuest Central, Academic Complete, Academic Video Online and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global– are available and cross-searchable.
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.
Full text access to more than 2000 Elsevier science, social science, engineering and management scholarly journals.
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. As research becomes increasingly global, interdisciplinary and collaborative, Scopus helps ensure that crucial research from around the world is not missed.
Catalog of books (and other materials) in libraries worldwide.