Skip to Main Content

Engineering Undergraduate Research: Literature Searching

Purpose of Literature Searching

You have one primary objective when doing a literature search: Find out what research has already been done in your field/niche, and determine how it is related to your project.

Develop Search Strategy

Image Taken from Monash University

Example Literature Search

Databases / Resources

Topic-Specific Databases Broad / Index-Based Resources
IEEE Explore (emphasis on Electronics and Computer Science) OneSearch (General)
GeoScience World (Geology / Geological Engineering) Scopus (General)
ASCE Library (Civil Engineering) Google Scholar (General)
OnePetro (Oil and Gas) Inspec (Electrical, Physics)
Annual Reviews (Broad: Science / Social Science) ACM Digital Library (Computer Science)
  TRID (Transportation)
  Shock and Vibration Digest (Shock and Vibration)
  PubMed (Life Sciences and Biomedical)
  PsycINFO (Psychology and related areas)