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MSE 480: MSE Senior Capstone

Searching for technical literature related to Materials Science and Engineering

Research Article Databases

Article Databases For In-Class Exercise

New developments and current research often appear first as conference papers and/or journals articles. You can find these in Article Indexes and Databases. You will also find product reviews, descriptions of methodology, or information on innovations in or applications of particular processes, systems and devices.

Note: Can't find what you need? Talk to your Librarian! Find my contact info on the Start Here page of this guide (left navigation bar. Try searching a General Science Database (listed in the next tab) or see if there is another Library subject guide with additional resources

General Science Databases

If you're not finding what you need in discipline related or specialized database, try one of these multidisciplinary science databases:

Find Other Databases to Search

From the Library's Main page (boisestate.edu/library):

Click the  Articles and Databases Panel

Library's main page with Indexes and Databases panel circled

 

From the Databases page you can Search for Databases or Browse your choices using the Database Alphabet bar.

Search for databases by one or more of the following:

  • Typing words into the Database Title / Keyword box
  • Selecting a Subject using the dropdown arrow
  • Identify the Type of resource you need using the dropdown arrow.

Includes types such as journals, maps, data and statistics, newspapers, dissertations and theses, e-books, images, primary resources, and more

Database search page noting word search box and dropdown menus for subject and type of resource

 

Click the Search button. Database options will appear below the search box

Click on the name of the database you want to launch it

Click the Clear Filters link if you want to clear your search and start over. This link will only appear after you click the Search button.

Clear filters link next to Search button on database search page

 

Browse Database Titles using the alphabet bar

Database search alphabet bar

 

Having trouble accessing a particular database? Use the Report a Problem button prominently located under the Search button on the Database Search page

Report an e-resources problem box

Database Search Tips

General Database Search Tips

Most databases allow you to use these search techniques to refinement your search:

Truncation (Wildcard)

Tells the database to search for the beginning of a word with different endings; these symboles might stand for multiple characters, one character only, be used at the end of a word, in the middle of a word or at the beginning.  More than one wildcard may be used in a database, with differing actions.  Check the help pages of each database to determine the appropriate symbol(s) and what it does; the most common symbols used are:  *   ?    #. 

Example: Engineer* - searches for engineer, engineers, engineering


Caution:  if the word stem is too short, you will retrieve many words that are not of interest to you.  Example: dop* searches for doping, dopant, dope as well as doppler.

Proximity

Allows you to specific how close two words are to each other in the text. Common techniques include

  • putting 2 or more words in quotation marks (" "), forcing the database to search for the words right next each other in that specific order; Example: "ion beam lithography"
  • "Near" and "with", abbreviated n and w respectively, sometimes with a number to specify the number of words between two search terms. Example: ion w beam w lithography  or   ion w1 lithography

Field Searching

Search a specific part of a database record, for example in the Author or Subject field.  This capability varies between databases, so check the help pages for the particular codes used by the database you are searching. In most databases, you will select the field to search by using a drop down menu

 

Beyond Your Initial Keyword Search

Most of us start our research with a keyword search in a database.  Where do you go from there as you develop your knowledge of a specific area?  These strategies will help you expand your research:

Review Articles

Reviews are helpful because someone else summarizes the research in a topical area (up to a particular date), and provides some context for that research.  This is helpful as you begin research in a new or unfamiliar area. Look for the database features that allow you to limit your search to reviews

Look at an article’s reference list

When you find an article that's perfect, look at the article's bibliography or list of references. What sources did the author(s) cite?  Those articles might be useful to you as well.

Cited References

You can also check to see what other articles have cited that perfect article. Look for features like a "cited by" search of list of "cited by" references.  Google Scholar is a great place to do this. This technique works best for “older” articles that have been around long enough for other authors to discover them.

Author searching

Do you know of a researcher in the subject area?  Or have you seen an author or two who published several articles or papers on the topic?  If so, search specifically for papers written by them to see if you find additional relevant articles.

Search with And, Or, Not - Boolean Logic

Most Library databases incorporate the use of Boolean logic (and, or, not) for searching. With some databases, these search connectors need to be entered; with others, you select the connector using a drop down menu.

AND

Requires that all of the terms are included in the search results. In other words, it only retrieves articles/records that contain all of your keywords.

Example:  searching for the doping of silicon with boron = silicon and doping and boron

OR

Allows a search for synonyms, or concepts that are similar to one another. think of it as meaning “also” or “too”. 

Example: searching for three different substances, such as silicon, germanium and selenium, and any mention of any of the substances would be useful = silicon or germanium or selenium

NOT

Requires that the term after the “not” be excluded from the results. Excludes a specific unwanted or unrelated topic.

Example:  searching for “ion beam lithography” without any mention of the phrase “electron beam lithography” = "ion beam lithography" not "electron beam lithography"

Variations include using the plus sign (+) to require terms and the minus sign (–) to exclude terms from the results.

Using Google's Advanced Search

Google Scholar Advanced Search can help you structure your search around the keywords you generated for your topic, and give you ideas of how to focus your search. To get to the Advanced Search feature:

1. Go to Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com) and click the menu bars on the top left

Google Scholar with arrow to pointing to menu bars

 

2. Choose Advanced Search

Google Scholar Menu with Advanced Search circled

 

The structure of Google Scholar's Advanced Search template allows you to easily structure your search around your keywords, return articles authored by a particular person, published in a specific journal, or published between specified dates.

Google Scholar Advanced Search template