Finding articles - ME 356 - Introduction to Solid Biomechanics - Library Guides at Boise State University

Welcome to the ME 356 guide! This guide covers library resources that help you find general information and research articles for biomedical devices related to your class assignment. Links to key Library resources are listed below. The left navigation will lead you to additional information that might be of use in completing the assignment.

Article Databases

Scientific Journal Articles / Research Articles

Article databases are specialized resources for locating journal articles. They allow you to search the published literature for articles by keywords, subjects, authors and other parameters. There are many different article databases; each has a different scope and therefore will contain descriptions to articles in different journals. Full-text articles are sometimes available, but often finding the full-text will require additional steps. Other terms for article databases include indexes and abstracts.

PubMed / Medline is the largest, most comprehensive index covering biomedical topics, with an emphasis on clinical medicine. Biomedical devices are covered here, as well as journals on optometry and dentistry. See box below for differences between the two versions listed here.

SPORTDiscus with Full Text covers sports & sports medicine journals, providing full text for 550 journals indexed in SPORTDiscus. SPORTDiscus also includes citation information for magazine articles, books, reports, and dissertations. Biomechanical and sports injury topics will be covered here.

More about PubMed/ Medline

The most comprehensive scientific journal article database for medical topics is PubMed/ Medline.

More about the two versions-- The database is available from two vendors;

PubMed has the same content as Medline, plus some newer material not yet indexed, and a few unique titles. PubMed is available to the public, but the "Find it" button only displays if you log in through the Boise State University Albertsons Library's link (on the Articles, Databases page or on a Subject Guide). The "Find it" button displays on the article record page (click the title of the article to get there);
The version of Medline provided through the vendor Ebsco displays the Library's "Find it" button on the results page

TIP: When first looking for articles on a new topic, reviews can be particularly helpful. This type of article will generally review past research on a specific topic and/or review the current research (as of the publication date of the article). Medline does "flag" review articles and you can limit your search to review articles. Here are descriptions of how to limit to review articles for each platform:

In PubMed, on the search results page, on the left under article types, click Review.
In the Ebsco version, check the "Review Articles" box in the limit search options below the text search box.

Additional Article Databases

Here are additional resources to supplement your research.

In the entries below, if the index provides a way to limit a search to reviews, the steps are described within the info button/ more section (click the icon or link).

Compendex and INSPEC (1896-current)
Both indexes are good sources for current and past research.

INSPEC covers over 4000 serials on topics in electrical engineering, physics, computers and control, and manufacturing. Although periodical articles and conference papers (1896-current) are the primary materials covered, some books, dissertations and reports are also included.

Compendex covers periodical articles and conference papers for all engineering disciplines, from 1969-current. Over 5000 serials are included.
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Compendex, INSPEC and GEOBASE are searched jointly on the Engineering Village Platform. To search only one of the databases, on the advanced search page, remove the check in the box to the left of the database you do not wish to search by clicking on the box. The check mark will be removed and that database will not be searched.

To limit to Reviews: Using the QuickSearch interface, options for limiting your search are below the search text boxes. First, uncheck the box on the left of GEOBASE. From the "Treatment Types" limit box, choose "General Review". If you then uncheck INSPEC (leaving only Compendex checked), an additional treatment type of "literature review" is available. If you uncheck Compendex so that only INSPEC is checked, INSPEC has an additional treatment type of "Bibliography" that might prove useful.

GEOBASE (1980-current) covers journal articles, conference papers, reports and books in geography, geology and ecology. Over 2000 journals are covered.

Compendex has a print version, ENGINEERING INDEX, (1959-2000), located at TA1 .E5.
Web of Science (1900-current)
This multi-disciplinary index includes article information from approximately 8,500 journals in sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts and humanities. A key feature of this index is the cited reference search, which searches for the articles that have cited a particular author’s work, or a specific article.
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To limit to Reviews: On one of the lines of paired boxes, choose "Document Type" from the drop-down menu on the right. This brings up selections in the box to the left; select "Review".

Additional Article Databases

To access additional article databases, or to access these through the Library's main article databases page:

Go to the Library's home page, http://library.boisestate.edu,
Click the Articles & Databases tab,
Click on the first letter of the article database name (M for Medline),
Click on the article database name.