Every year, thousands of articles and papers are published in journals and conference proceedings. To find information in these articles and papers, you need to use an Index. Luckily there is an index on almost every topic imaginable from architecture to zoology.
What is an index?
The job of an index is to bring together references to scattered information. While books and individual journal issues generally have indexes, the index of most interest to engineering students is a periodical index. A periodical index brings together information (subject, author, title, keywords) found in many journals and conferences. Periodical indexes are produced by companies who hire people called indexers—good periodical indexes do not rely on machine indexing. These human indexers read each abstract and title and also scan articles, looking for relevant terms to add to the index. They will also add synonyms even if the text does not include them. Indexers also categorized each article and paper with subject headings. These subject headings place the articles in a larger framework. For example, the subject "fluid mechanics" may be further categorized by words such as "physics," "hydrology," "rheology," etc. Periodical indexes cost money—often upwards of $100k a year.
How do I select an index?
First think about:
- what kind of information is needed
- what kind of discipline or area is interested in this kind of information
- where do people who use or make this kind of information work
Next, select an index that covers this topic—you may need to use more than one. For example, construction management has:
- technical aspects
- business (management) aspects
- legal (safety) aspects
- environmental aspects
Select indexes that cover what you need.
What are the most important indexes in Engineering ?
Ei Compendex (Engineering Index) and INSPEC are the major indexes in engineering. They both provide excellent coverage of conference and journal papers from the major U.S. and European engineering, physics and computer science societies, as well as journals from the major journal publishers.
While there is a fair amount of duplication between the two indexes, it is not 100%. INSPEC provides more coverage of physics, computer science and communications. Try your topic in both indexes, and see which one provides better results.
Remember that neither index covers theses, patents, government reports, standards or books.
What specialty engineering indexes exist?
What if my topic is interdisciplinary?You may find that neither Ei nor INSPEC meets your needs. There are other large, specialized indexes that primarily cover scholarly articles and conference papers. The most important to engineering are:
- Aerospace Database : AIAA, NASA and other space-related publications
- Dissertation Abstracts: Dissertations and theses from most U.S. and Canadian universities.
- Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology Online: Chemical and process engineering, industrial and applied chemistry, materials science, polymer science and biotechnology.
- MedLine: Clinical and medical research information.
- Science Citation (Web of Science): Index of who cited which paper in their paper.
Examine your topic. Depending on what you are looking for, you may want to try one of these other indexes:
- Business: Business Source Complete
- Public Policy: PAIS
- U.S. government regulations: Code of Federal Regulations and U.S. Code
- Psychology: PsychAbstracts
- Patents: U.S. Patent Office online databases
- Scientific reports from U.S. government agencies: for URLs see our guide to technical reports
- Unclassified DOD reports: DTIC
Too complex? Contact the Engineering Library.
What do I do if I can't find anything on my topic?
This can be tricky—there can be many reasons why you can't find anything on your topic. The most common are:
- The information is proprietary—that is, it's secret. It can be secret for national security reasons or, more likely, for commercial reasons. Generally speaking, companies do not let their employees publish information that would help their competitors.
- There are better terms associated with your topic. Try thinking of other ways to describe what you want—use synonyms. If you are looking for information on cars, also include the terms "vehicles" or "automobiles" in your search.
- You have made a spelling error. This is more common than you might think—check your spelling.
- You are looking in the wrong place. Does your topic have another aspect? Try an index that covers this aspect.
- The information you need was published prior to 1970. You won't find much on the web prior to 1985, and most indexes begin in the 1970s or later. [Note: for information published prior to 1970, you'll need to use paper indexes in the library.]
If all else fails—call or email the library and ask for help. We can be very helpful.
