Finding Books, Articles and Other Resources On Your Topic

General Databases

Academic OneFile - Use this database to locate scholarly and general interest articles covering a variety of subjects.

LexisNexis- Includes articles from major American newspapers and regional papers, statistics, company financial information, country and state profiles, and medical information. Major source for federal case law and statutes, the U.S. Code, law reviews, and state legal research.

General Reference Center - A general interest database that integrates a variety of sources. Find articles on current events, popular culture, business and industry trends, the arts and sciences, sports, hobbies, and more.

JSTOR - A fully searchable database containing the back issues of scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics and other fields.

Subject Specific Databases

Science Citation Index Expanded- Part of the ISI Web of Science, this index provides author, subject and citation access to journal articles and book reviews in the sciences, as well as citation values for particular papers, citation tracking and related records. Updated weekly.

Scopus- An index to the world's scientific, technical and medical literature (14,000 scholarly titles), including 2,700 titles in Social Science, Psychology and Economics. Updated daily. Non-English titles are covered as long as English abstracts are available. Full-text linking is available wherever the technology and the access arrangements permit and continues to expand as such arrangements allow. Integrated web searching and patent searching by Scirus.

History of Science, Technology and Medicine - The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine file describes journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, and medicine and allied historical fields.

America: History and Life - Scholarly literature on the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada.

INSPEC- Access is via Engineering Village 2, the Institute of Physics AXIOM research service. Choose INSPEC in the Select Database box on the EV2 homepage. For standard service a password is not required. For enhanced service providing personalization, alerting, and search history, you will need to create an account with a password. INSPEC is the leading database for the world's literature in physics, electrical and electronics engineering, computing, and information technology. It corresponds to the print publications Physics Abstracts, Electrical and Electronic Abstracts, and Computer and Control Abstracts.

Computer Abstracts International - An abstracting and indexing service for the field of computer science using the ACM classification scheme.

Computer and Information Systems Abstracts- Covers major areas in computer science: artificial intelligence, CAD/CAM & CIM/CAE, computer circuits & logic, computer hardware, logic & switching theories, optical & acoustic technology, etc.

Print and Online Reference Sources

Tufts Catalog - Use the catalog to discover books, dvd's/videos, music cd's and other sources pertaining to your research.

Oxford Reference Online - Provides access to 100 major Oxford Press dictionaries, encyclopedias and other works in the humanities, social sciences, languages, science, technology, medicine, performing arts and religion.

Oxford Reference Online: Computing - Three dictionaries covering computing, the Internet and weights, measures and units.

CREDO Reference - Online reference resources from numerous publishers. This reference resource can be searched by individual title, broad subject headings, cross-references, audio and images. Use its "research mapper" to search for terms and topics that are interconnected and displayed in (a) visual form.

American Men and Women of Science - A biographical dictionary of the significant scientists in the physical, biological, and related fields. Each edition includes biographical entries on approximately 120,000 living scientists, providing birthdate; birthplace; field of specialty; education; honorary degrees; current position; professional and career information; awards; memberships; research information; and addresses for each entrant where available. Volume 8 of the set is a comprehensive index listing scientists by field, and by state under field.

Access Science: McGraw-Hill Online Encyclopedia of Science and Technology - Online version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. Access to over 7,100 full text articles, 115,000 dictionary terms, biographies and Research Updates in science and technology. Updated daily.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies

Research Guides by Subject
General Science
Computer Science
Women's Studies

Web Search Engines
Google Scholar- Google Scholar searches the Web for scholarly material and links to library catalogs for books and the full text of articles, which may be available from Tufts-licensed providers or for a fee from publishers. For articles, follow the "Get This Item at Tufts Link." For books, click on the Library Search link and go to the Tufts Libraries catalog (in the upper right-hand corner). Off-campus users must set up their Scholar Preferences to include Tufts University in order to have direct access to the library's resources. In Library Links, type Tufts and then click on Save Preferences (in upper right-hand corner).
Scirus- A comprehensive science-specific search engine. Locates peer-reviewed articles.
Science.gov- Gateway search engine to science information provided by the U. S Government.

Keyword Searching



The Library Catalog and most library databases or online collections allow you to search by keyword and also by subject. Unlike Google and other web search engines you need to use words like AND, OR, and NOT (sometimes called Boolean or search operators), and other techniques in order to quickly find the most relevant sources for your research.

Basic Rules for Keyword Searching

Phrase search - Use quotation marks "" to search your for a specific phrase Examples: "computer science"

And - Use to limit search and combine topics/terms/subjects Example: "computer science" and history

Or - Use to expand search and look for similar topics or synonyms Example: computers or computer science

Not - Use when you want to omit or discount a term from a search Example: computer science not engineering

* Asterisk - Can be used in most databases as a way to trunk a word to find variations of the word (singular and plural, words that begin with the same root word). Example: comput* (searches compute, computer, computers, computing, etc.)

( ) Parentheses - A good way to group or nest searches. Use when searching for similar terms/topics/words Example: (computers or computer science) and history and women

To create an Effective Keyword Search use the step-by-step Keyword Searching Worksheet or see Research Paper Navigator: Develop Search Strategies.You can also check out the following for tutorials on keyword searching: \\ *Get Help from a Librarian* * Contact Regina Raboin, Reference Librarian to ask a question about research or library services, or to set up a one-on-one research appointment. regina.raboin@tufts.edu, 617-627-4221 * Librarians are also are available at the Reference Desk to answer questions. Stop by, call 617-627-3460 or IM TischLibrarian. Reference Desk Hours\\ \\ *Post a Comment/Question* Do you have a question about this guide or about the library instruction session for your class? Did you discover a good search method or resource that you'd like to share with your classmates? Use the add comment link to post your comment/question below.