“No, we don't cheat. And even if we did, I'd never tell you.” -- Tommy Lasorda (American Baseball Player and Coach, b.1927)
Any organization that conducts serious research has to provide its researchers with one or more subscribed online databases. The problem is that there are so many to choose from. How do you determine the products that are best for your organization?
A place to start is to see what your local university library subscribes to. Here, for example, is an excerpt from the engineering related databases that the University of Southern California subscribes to.
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Choosing Online Databases-University of Southern California
Engineering
Applied Science & Technology Full Text
The complete contents of approximately 200 full-text journals indexed in this database are included in OmniFile Full Text.Topics include chemistry, engineering, geology, physics, math, robotics, and neural networks.
Access is through WilsonWeb (choose OmniFile Full Text, then "Applied Science & Technology" under the subject area to specifically search this database).
ArticleFirst
Contains the table of contents pages and holdings information from more than 13,000 journals in science, technology, medicine, social science, business, the humanities, and popular culture. Although most of the journals are published in English, journals in other languages are also included. Updated daily.
Compendex
CompendexWeb is the most comprehensive bibliographic database of engineering research literature, containing references to over 5000 engineering journals and conferences. It covers literature that makes a definite contribution to knowledge in the subject areas of engineering and applied science. About half the citations (from 2600 journals and conferences) include abstracts and indexing in the records. Online coverage is from 1884 to the present, and files are updated weekly. The highest percentages of journal literature are in the fields of chemical and process engineering (15%), computers and data processing (12%), applied physics (11%), and electronics and communication (12%) In addition Compendex includes civil engineering (6%) and mechanical engineering (6%).
eBooks on EBSCOhost (previously NetLibrary)
This web site provides access to the full-text content of 4,274 e-books purchased by the USC Libraries from netLibrary. The books are searchable by both author and title. In addition, all books included in this collection are accessible through Homer.
Engineering Research Database
Bibliographic coverage of the international serial and non-serial literature for research in civil, earthquake, environmental, mechanical, transportation engineering, forensic engineering, engineering services, education, theoretical mechanics and dynamics, mathematics/computation, design, construction, and latest technological developments. ProQuest Deep Indexing: Engineering supplements the database with access to millions of indexed charts, figures, graphs, maps, and tables from the scholarly research and technical literature.
Engineering Village 2
Ei CompendexWeb is the most comprehensive bibliographic database of engineering research literature, containing references to over 5000 engineering journals and conferences. Ei covers literature that makes a definite contribution to knowledge in the subject areas of engineering and applied science. About half the citations (from 2600 journals and conferences) include abstracts and indexing in the records. Online coverage is from 1884 to the present, and files are updated weekly. The highest percentages of journal literature are in the fields of chemical and process engineering (15%), computers and data processing (12%), applied physics (11%), and electronics and communication (12%) In addition Compendex includes civil engineering (6%) and mechanical engineering (6%). USC's subscription to the Engineering Village 2 (EV2) platform includes access to the Compendex and Inspec databases.
Scirus
Scirus searches an international collection of institutional repositories and other resources, so it can be a good way to find technical reports, preprints, and other less common publications. Scirus includes basic and advanced search functions, and sorts results into journals vs. web sites. Elsevier ScienceDirect journals are prominently featured in the journal results, with direct links. USC subscribes to the majority of ScienceDirect titles, so Scirus is a good way to search those online journals. For more detailed information, see this electronic resources review in the online peer-reviewed journal Issues in Science and Technology Libraries
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Visit the USC site to see descriptions of the other databases to which the university subscribes. Better yet, take a few hours to visit your local university library. You may be able to search some of the databases directly, which will help you decide whether they are right for your organization.
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