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WRI 502: Writing a Persuasive Proposal in Quantitative Disiplines: Discovering the literature and more

This guide will help graduate students in Engineering, Science and related fields to identify tools and resources for researching literature and funding information in your field.

Search Articles+ (not news)

Search Articles+ for scholarly content

Google Scholar Tips

Google Scholar  

  • search engine which Indexes scholarly literature in many disciplines
  • For many scholarly journals, links directly to the article
  • Includes cited references like the Web of Science database
  • Advanced search allows author, date, and other searches
  • Integrated with Findit@PUL
  • Includes links to JSTOR and Elsevier journals

Set Your Preferences for Google Scholar

  • Before you search use Settings to set up on "Find It" functions. 
  • Search Princeton in the Library Links box and make sure box is checked           
  • WorldCat - set default for off-campus access to "Library Search"
  • Select preferred citation manager
  • If you use RefWorks or EndNote, choose your option in the bibliography section
  • Then Save Preferences

Princeton Users:

Find more scholarly articles in article databases.

Directions to access Princeton-only articles from off-campus

More on Google Scholar

Google Scholar

  •    Scholarly focus
  •    Academic publishers
  •    Professional papers and conference proceedings
  •    Online journals and reprinted articles
  •    Use the Advanced Search for better searching

Pros:

  •       Relevancy (relevant hits at the top of the list - tend to be older)
  •       Web-based materials not in other databases
  •       Access to full-text enabled (linked to PUL library resources)
  •       Searches a broad cross-section of subjects and disciplines
  •       "Cited by" links to works that cite a particular book or article
  •       Strong in the Sciences (Engineering, Chemistry, Biology etc)
  •       Improving all the time

Cons:

  •       Frequency of updates?
  •       Gaps in coverage
  •       Limited advanced search and narrowing
  •       Incomplete Citations (often omit years, issue numbers or journal titles)         
  •       Doesn't handle variant spellings of author names or journal titles         
  •       No saved searches like many library databases
  •       Bias towards older literature - much of which is not full text
  •       Exporting citations : Only one at a time

 

 

Facts, reviews and overviews

To familiarize yourself with the broader landscape of a research field, especially if your work will have applications in other disciplines, go to the basics:

  • Annual Reviews - Series of authoritative, analytic reviews in 33 focused disciplines within the Biomedical, Physical, and Social Sciences. Useful for researching engineering applications in physical sciences.
  • Knovel Engineering and Scientific Online References  
    Collection of the latest leading technical and engineering reference books
  • CRCnetBase - full text of scientific and engineering handbooks published by CRC Press.Topics covered include Biomedical Science, Chemistry, Clean Technology, Economics, Environmental Science, Geosciences, Material Science, Math, Physics.
  • Synthesis and Colloquium Digital Library  (Morgan & Claypool) - Collection of lectures that synthesize various research or development topics in biomedical engineering, communications, artificial intelligence, computer science, and electrical engineering (Synthesis Series) and life sciences (Colloquium Series).
  • Encyclopedias - The McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology is one of many online encyclopedias available. To locate encyclopedias in other fields, search the main catalog or books+ for "encyclopedia AND (subject area)" e.g. encyclopedia AND chemistry

Data and Statistics

Protocols and Methods