Building Research Skills

 

The UCI Libraries Homepage serves as a gateway to all online resources that are used for teaching and research. This page will direct you to the online databases and will give you access to all that is defined by "Finding Online Resources"  There are two functions on this screen - to BROWSE assuming you know the title; and to SEARCH when you can search by title word or keyword.  This new page allows you to search all online resources collectively or by type: 

                        Databases

          Online Journals

                        News & Newspapers

                        Reference tools

                        Statistical & Data Resources (mostly government information)

           

Connecting from Off-Campus directions allow for remote access.

 

FINDING BOOKS:

            Online Catalogs:

ANTPAC – UC Irvine Libraries holdings (Langson Library, Science Library, and Grunigen Medical Library) - note format

                        MELVYL – UC-wide holdings (all 10 UC campuses) - easiest way to use InterLibrary Loan (ILL) is via                         MELVYL Request

                        WorldCat - Global library holdings with links to UCI

                        Global Books in Print - directory of books in print

                        Amazon.com - commercial inventory - can be checked for items not in our collection and ordered via ILL

            Library of Congress Subject Headings - for this course selective appropriate subject headings include:

                        Global positioning system - (can be refined by additional subheadings)

                        Airplanes - Control systems

                        Automobiles - Control systems

                       

                        Alternative fuel vehicles

                        Diesel motor - Alternative fuels

                        Alcohol as fuel

                        Gas as fuel

                        Vegetable oils as fuel

                        Motor fuels

                        Spark ignition engines

                       

                        Wireless communication systems

                        Local area networks - standards

           

SUBJECT GUIDES - available for each department in the Samueli School of Engineering to lead users to a variety of information resources.

 

REFERENCE WORKS

 

Quick Reference - leads users to a variety of online resources

 

Reference Universe - links to online reference from print sources - reflecting different disciplines, not all in ANTPAC

 

I.                Professional Vocabulary - Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Handbooks, etc

 

            Selected works:

 

AccessScience - online equivalent of McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology

 

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

 

Wikipedia - no peer review content in this encyclopedic resource; all contributed to voluntarily

 

Dictionary of computer science, engineering and technology / editor-in-chief, Phillip A. Laplante, Boca Raton, FL. CRC Press, 2001, Science Library – Reference, QA 76.15 D5258 2001

 

Images of technology: a pictorial dictionary of Modern engineering research / Edited by Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Science Library – Bar, TA9 I43 1999

 

CRC ENGnetBASE- collection of eBooks; part of the CRCNetBASE collection of eBooks published by CRC Press. An example is the EngNet Engineering Dictionary

 

Safari Tech Books Online - collection of eBooks by O'Reilly

 

McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of engineering / Sybil P. Parker, editor-in-chief, New York: McGraw Hill, 1993, Science Library – Reference, TA9 M36 1993 and annuals -

 

Van Nostrand’s scientific encyclopedia / Glenn D. Considine, editor: Peter H. Kulik, associate edoitor, New York: Wiley-Interscience, 2002, 2 volumes, Science Library – Reference, Q121 V3 2002

 

Thomas' Register - directory for global manufactured products or domestic products and services in North America

 

            II.  Technical Writing and Communication & Resume Guides

Selected current resources & texts (SL = Science Library; LL = Langson Library)

 

Careers in Focus: Engineering, 3^rd ed.  Chicago, IL: Ferguson/Infobase Pub., 2007.  SL REF TA157 .C283 2007

 

Resumes for Engineering Careers: With Sample Cover Letters, 3^rd ed.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 

SL REF TA 157 R47 2006

 

Writing Power: Communication in an Engineering Center / Dorothy Winsor.  Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2003.  SL Bar TA 158.5 W56 2003

 

Writing and Speaking in the Technology Professions: A Practical Guide / edited by David F. Beer, New York: IEEE Press, 2003, SL Bar, T11 W75 2003

 

Writing from A to Z, 4^th ed. / Sally Barr Ebest.  Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2003.  LL Reserves PE 1408 W773 2003b

 

A Student Guide to Writing at UCI, 11^th ed./ John Hollowell. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2003.  SL Ref Desk PE 1408 H668 2003

 

Handbook of Technical Writing / Gerald J.Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, New York: St. Martin’s 2003, SL Ref T11 B78 2003

 

MIT Guide to Science and Engineering Communication, 2^nd ed. / James G. Paradis and Muriel L. Zimmerman.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.  SL Bar Q223 P33 2002

 

Technical Communication, 6^th ed. / Mike Markel. NY: St. Martin's Press.  SL Bar T11 M346, 2001

 

Technical Style / J.M. Haile, Central, S.C.: Macatea Productions, 2001, SL-Bar, T11 H24 2001

 

Ethics in technical communication: a critique and synthesis / Mike Markel, Wetport, Conn.: Ablex Pub., 2001, SL Bar, T10.5 M34 2001

 

Ethics in Technical Communication / Paul M. Dombrowski, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000, SL Bar, T10.5 D66 2000

 

Technical Writing and Professional Communication for Nonnative Speakers of English / Thomas N. Huckin, Leslie A. Olsen, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991, SL Bar, T11 H823 1991

 

IEEE transactions on professional communication (journal)

 

III.             Citation format - be consistent and be aware of how to cite materials available electronically

 

                        Style manuals & writing guides - many other guides are found at all Reference Desks

 

            IV.       Communications issues

                        A. Avoid plagiarism, be ethical – CITE, CITE, CITE!

Plagiarism: what it is and how to recognize and avoid it. A guide prepared by the Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

                                    http://www.indiana.edu/~wts?plagiarism.html

                        B.  Consult http://www.turnitin.com/ , a plagiarism detection program - ask your professor if you are                                         interested in this.

                        C.  Be consistent

D.  Work on your presentation skills

·       very important now

·       when interviewing for job

·       at your job as a professional

 

V.              Locating information / conducting research

 

A. Traditional Print Sources - books, journals

1. Library of Congress classification ranges for browsing

Qs, Ts, TA-TK7800s at Science Library

HD range at Langson Library

W - for medicine

2. Reference Works @ Science Library Reference (2^nd floor) - arranged in call number order

3. Bound journals are in the SL Drum (round part) on floors 4-6 in call number sequence

 

B. Using Databases (subject and keyword searching) - use the UCI eLinks icon to determine fulltext access

1.   Compendex (now on the Ei Village platform) - Engineering Index -

2.   ACM Digital Library  - Full text of ACM journals, magazines and conference proceedings

3.     INSPEC (OVID) – electrical engineering, computer science, physics and the ARCHIVE

4.     BIOSIS (ISI) - covers the life sciences, environmental sciences

5.   IEEE Xplore - Full text of IEEE journals, conference proceedings, and standards

6.     Web of Science - Science Citation Index going back to 1945 - no conference proceedings

-        general search

-        forward searching

-        lateral searching via "Related Articles" feature

-        cited reference search engine– who is citing who. Unique feature

7.     Business Source Premier - business/management databases

8.     Factiva  - full-text coverage of business literature and trends

9.     Gartner - focuses on high-tech industries and companies with full-text content - you must register to use

10.  Forrester - a very new database available later this month

11.  Knovel  - a very sophisticated database of  nearly 1500 full-text resources in Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science and Life Sciences - much more than just a bibliographic database - allows you to normalize data. This database also features Interactive Deeply Searchable (IDS) Graphs and Interactive Deeply Searchable (IDS) Equations with Plots, giving the researcher numbers for Real 'x' and 'y' values to go with the graphics.

12.  ASME - publications of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers - search journals via Compendex or on this site

13.  ASCE - publications of the American Society of Civil Engineers - indexed in Web of Science and Compendex.

14.  SAE - the University of California is unable to come to terms to license publications from the Society of Automotive Engineering, however if you search ANTPAC for SAE as an author you will find many resources that we have from this professional society

 

                                          Additional databases relevant to the course assignments:

 

15.  PubMed MEDLINE – clinical medicine, health sciences, dentistry, pharmacology, etc.

16.  Expanded Academic ASAP - a lot of full-text (PDF, Web-based, or plain text with no images).

17.  Lexis Nexis Academic Universe- full-text

18.  Environmental Science & Pollution Management (CSA - Use Illumina)

19.  Philosophers' Index - to support the study of ethics

20.  Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) - this series is by Springer - well indexed in INSPEC but not always with eLinks - you can go directly to the Springer website and enter the volume # and scroll down to the particular paper, proceeding, chapter or lecture

21.  Transport - major database covering all facets of transportation - after searching, you will have to consult ANTPAC.  Remember that the database has different time segments to search.

22.  PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service)

23.  Energy Central - specialize database on all applications of energy - generation, expenditure, etc

24.  Google Scholar - has eLinks to UCI full-text

25.  Microsoft Windows Live Academic (still in beta testing and focuses on Computer Science, Physics and Electrical Engineering - has UCI eLinks

 

Additional Specialized Engineering & Business Databases - noted on the Engineering Subject Guides and on Medicine at http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/subject/subpage.php?subject=med and the GML Subject Page at http://medical.lib.uci.edu/ or on Business and Marketing.

 

C.  Hints for specific topics and groups - recommended databases

1.     GPS - consult Compendex, Inspec, Web of Science

2.     Alternative Fuels for Automobiles - consult Web of Science, ASME, AIAA, Compendex, SAE

3.     802.11a,b,g wireless protocols - consult INSPEC, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Business Source Premier

 

                       D.   Patent information

 

U. S. Patent and Trademark Office

http://www.uspto.gov/ and How to Search the USPTO database

Official source for U.S. patents and trademarks in full text from 1976 (full page images available since 1790) with links to the Library of Congress for copyright information. Definitions, application forms and instructions, handbooks, notices, and patent attorney directory are just a few of the products provided. Includes design patents and reissued patents as well as patents currently in application process (coverage starts March 2001). Full-text searching is available.

 

LexisNexis Academic Universe

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe

Under "Legal Research" is a Patent Research section for searching of Patents (1971 to date), by individual category of Design Patents, Plant Patents or Utility Patents. Can also search by keyword, assignee, inventor, patent number, classification, and lawyer.

 

                        Google Patents - latest of the patent indexes to appear - there is lots of help; not as formalized a                              search process - contains 7 million patents

 

                                    Other valuable patent resources:

Patent Searching Tutorial – from the University of Texas, Austin

                              European Patent Office - index of patents originating in Europe

Freepatentsonline - Fulltext and images of US patents beginning with patent number 4,000,000

Scirus - Indexes over 13 million patents from the US, European and Japanese Patent Offices and WIPO

Subject Guide for Patents

 

                        Additional research resources

 

1.     Subject Guides for Engineering and Information & Computer Science and Management (Business)

                                   

E. Internet

Search Engines vs. metasites - evaluate resource - consider domain - .edu, .com, .gov, .org, etc.

Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources - http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/index.htm)

                        1. Authority control - authorship - who, affiliation, where

                        2. Currency - note the date, the update, does it reflect the right period of time

                        3. Evaluate the source - establish criteria that is meaningful to covering the topic

                        4. Citing Internet resources - URL & date of the search

                        5. Capturing and citing

                        6. Copying

 

F. Specific Resources and Hints

 

1.     Government Information - major source - consult ANTPAC or visit Reference desk on the First Floor of the Langson Library. For Federal US sources, check the websites of specific agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy Web page or specific state agencies at http://www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp

 

2.   Professional Societies publications – investigate IEEE, ACM, SPIE, ASEE, ACS, ASME, ASCE, SAE, AIAA, CNI, IFIP etc.        

 

3.   Work from an outline - begin with an anticipated title, write the prospectus indicating the hypothesis and leaving

       notations for areas where research or information is still needed.

 

4.     For assistance in preparing presentations you may find the following resources helpful in preparing a Powerpoint presentation that can capture your ideas with some visual elements including images, graphs, photographs, etc.  For some background in creating an appropriate presentation, consider the needs of your audience and play to that group.  You may find the following resources and tutorials helpful:

 

Mastering Powerpoint 2000 - Science Library Bar  T385 .M8863 1999 

 

And tutorials at:

http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/library/HHCL_New_Web/Teach_Learn_tutor_ppoint.htm

 

http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/tutorials/pptscratch-text.htm

 

            Sources for images include:  Google Image Search and other search interfaces

 

G.    Additional Information & Assistance:

1.     Contact Liaison Librarian -

2.     Consult Reference Desk at either Science (9-6) or Langson (9-9) Libraries and (1-5 on weekends)

3.     Use Ask a Librarian to get help via the Chat/Online service, eMail Reference or to schedule a Research Consultation