LibGuides: Mechanical Engineering Research Guide: Articles

Databases for Topic

These are the best databases we have for research in Consumer Sciences. There are more options, especially for cross-disciplinary research on the Secondary Databases tab. You can see all our databases in our Databases A to Z list.

Engineering Village - Compendex This link opens in a new window
Nearly 19 million references and abstracts from thousands of journals, trade magazines, conference proceedings and technical reports. All aspects of engineering and applied science are covered: bioengineering, agricultural engineering and food technology, computers and data processing, electronics and communications, mechanical and automotive engineering, and civil engineering. Coverage from 1969 to present.
Inspec This link opens in a new window
IET Inspec is one of the most definitive databases for subject-specific and interdisciplinary research in the fields of physics, electronics, computing and engineering. It contains over 22 million records of research and is used globally within universities, corporate and government organisations to ensure discoverability of essential content.
IET Inspec is integrated with the Elsevier Engineering Village platform.
ASME Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text access to the journals published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Topics covered include various aspects of manufacturing, dynamics, applied mechanics and engineering design.
ASTM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
ASTM Digital Library includes access to all ASTM standards, nine journals, selected technical reports, proceedings, and bulletins. Users are required to create a free account and log in to view full text. Additional information on accessing standards is available here.
Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides access to Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. This database allows very sophisticated searching including cited reference searching.
ScienceDirect Publications This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to scholarly peer-reviewed scientific, medical, and technical literature. Includes over 15 million articles from more than 3,800 peer-reviewed journals and over 37,000 books, with coverage from 1823 to present. Subjects include physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

In addition to the databases listed above, the following databases can be useful in finding articles and other resources related to health, physical education, and recreation.

US Patent & Trademark Office This link opens in a new window
This office registers and maintains patents and trademarks in the United States. For U.S. patents, this is the definitive database from which other collections get their data.
Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1861 to the present day, and offering full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997. This database was previously known as Dissertation Abstracts International.
Dissertations & Theses at South Dakota State University (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Dissertations and theses produced by South Dakota State University students. Not all dissertations and theses are available full-text in this database. Indexing from 1958-2011.
OSTI.gov This link opens in a new window
Formerly SciTech Connect, this resource is the primary search tool for the Department of Energy (DOE) funded science, technology, and engineering research and development results. Contains nearly 3 million citations, with citations for 1.5 million journal articles and 445,000 full-text DOE-funded reports. Also provides information about the history and organization of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). Resources date back to 1948.
WorldWide Science This link opens in a new window
A global science gateway comprised of national and international scientific databases and portals which accelerates scientific discovery and progress by providing one-stop searching of databases from around the world and provides real-time searching and translation of globally-dispersed multilingual scientific literature.

You can browse our journals by topic.

Or, search for a specific journal title

Think about where you are searching for articles. Use library databases first, Google Scholar after library databases and end with a basic Google search. Here is an explanation of why.
Think about what type of information you need. Papers and speeches need more academic, research based information and a general interest. For instance, if you see a movie and are curious about a phenomenon or a person, looking it/them up in Wikipedia or on Google might be fine but when writing a paper about the phenomenon or person, you will want reliable, scholarly, in-depth information that you can verify. Here is more information on quality of information.
There are many strategies you can use to narrow, broaden, or refine your search. Check out the Research 101: Search Strategies pages for more information (click the down arrow on the right of the Search Strategies tab to see more information) such as:
- Generating keywords
- Boolean operators (searching with AND, OR, and NOT)
- Subject terms
- Citation searching
- Mining reference lists

Search Alerts

Search alerts allow you to save searches and have them run automatically with the results being sent to you periodically. Check who provides the database you use most often and follow the instructions below.

Ebsco database search alert instructions.

ProQuest database search alert instructions.

Web of Science (Clarivate) database search alert instructions.

If your database is not from Ebsco, ProQuest, or Web of Science, contact your subject librarian for help.

Quick Links

Terminology: Journal/Magazine

Are you confused about the difference between journals and magazines? No problem, here is what to look for to determine which you have.

Journals: Content is written to inform the reader.

Author(s) named and credentials given
Sources cited in the article
Bibliography at the end (often it is long)
Articles report on research or review the current state of a topic
Articles tend to be long
Illustrations are usually graphs and charts and are necessary to understand the text
Few if any advertisements in the journal

Magazines: Content is written to entertain the reader.

Author is often not named
If sources are given, they are not cited entirely
No bibliography
Articles report on events and people, if research is reported, it is not in detail
Articles are short
Illustrations are often in color and are intended to entertain
Lots of advertisements for a wide variety of products

Interlibrary Loan

Although Briggs Library has an extensive collection, you may need items that are not available at the Library. No worries! You can request those articles, books, and other materials through Interlibrary Loan.

Interlibrary Loan

Keep in mind that the process may take from a week to ten days. Start your research early!

Many of our databases have an Interlibrary Loan Request button for articles not available in that particular database. Before submitting the loan request, be sure to check our Journals List for the title of the source or periodical (i.e. New York Times).