Research Skills for Engineering Students

When it comes to finding useful information published in engineering journals, there are three paths for finding potentially useful information that we explore on this page. Universities, companies and government agencies are all involved in research and create different types of documents. Depending on the purpose of your research, each of these strategies might help you to find the information you need.

• Author searching – start with experts in a particular area of science or engineering
• Keyword searching – finding articles that match keywords means that the keywords you type really matter
• Cited Reference searching – research moves forward by building upon current and past knowledge and reviewing cited sources can be a great way to explore a topic 

Author Searching using the Scopus database

To get a full list of a researcher's publications, it is useful to search a database like Scopus. Scopus indexes thousands of scientific and engineering publications. The database and search engine makes it very easy to find articles written by a specific researcher.

First, ensure that you have connected to the UBC Library by logging in to OpenAthens. Then connect to Scopus.

One way to find UBC researchers is by looking through listings of research centres or the bios of faculty in a particular department to see what they have published. In our Scopus example, we are going to search for articles published by UBC Mechanical Engineering Professor Naomi Zimmerman.

Step 1:

Select the "Authors" tab above the search box, then enter the researcher's name.

Step 2:

Scopus will display any results that match the name you've searched.

The Scopus database shows 34 publications authored or co-authored by Naomi Zimmerman. You can click on the "34" to see a listing of these publications.

Keyword Searching using the Scopus database

Below is an example of a paper written by Zoe Le Hong and Naomi Zimmerman (who we searched for in "Exploring research: By UBC engineering researchers"). We will use this paper to find additional relevant research papers.

Air quality and greenhouse gas implications of autonomous vehicles in Vancouver, Canada    
    Le Hong Z., Zimmerman N.
    Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2021, 90, art. no. 102676    
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102676

Abstract
This study explores vehicle fleet emissions changes due to connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) diffusion, 
over the years 2030 and 2040 in Metro Vancouver, using the US Environmental Protection Agency's MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES). Impacts were assessed across scenarios with varying future vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT), transit use, fuel-type, and diffusion rate. In all models, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) were reduced due to increasing electric vehicles, though reductions varied. At best, CAVs decreased GHGs by 20% compared to no-CAV conditions in 2040. At worst, we model a 6% decrease in GHGs if autonomy provokes increased use of personal vehicles (Motor City scenario), even with 85% electric vehicles. An overall reduction in emissions is seen for other pollutants, with the exception of PM, ranging from emissions reductions of up to 20% (PM exhaust) to an increase in emissions by 30% (PM2.5 brakewear) in 2040. Increased VKT per CAV had the most significant impact.

Brainstorming Keywords

If we are looking for more articles dealing with the impact of autonomous vehicles on greenhouse gas emissions, what keywords appear above that you could you use in your search strategy?

• autonomous vehicle
• greenhouse gas or GHG

You can also expand on the concept greenhouse gas to include the following terms in your search:

        "carbon dioxide" OR CO2 OR methane OR CH4 OR ozone OR "nitrous oxide" OR N2O

The most recent article (at the time this guide was written) in the search results is:

Rebound effects undermine carbon footprint reduction potential of autonomous electric vehicles
Onat, N.C. et al
(2023) Nature Communications, 14 (1), art. no. 6258
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41992-2

All researchers must cite articles, data, code and other sources of information that important to their research. In the example article “Air quality and greenhouse gas implications” we looked at in "Exploring research: By UBC engineering topics," Le Hong and Zimmerman cite sources of population data, previous models and methodologies, and background studies on the effect of autonomous vehicles on greenhouse gas emissions.

Looking at the listed references will show you the source publication or governmental source that was used.

Example 1:

We can also look at articles which have cited Le Hong and Zimmerman's article.

Search for the article, then click on the "22" in the "Cited by" column, and Scopus will display 22 journal articles that have cited the "Air quality and greenhouse gas implications of autonomous vehicles in Vancouver, Canada" paper in their reference list.

Looking at the focus of those papers will show how they build upon or give credit to Zimmerman's research. All of these 22 papers have Zimmerman’s 2021 article in their reference list or bibliography.

Example 2:

Going back to our search from "Exploring research: By UBC engineering topics," we can see that within our search results we can also explore the articles that have cited each of these results.

To identify important papers, use the Sort by "Cited by (highest)" option.

Of the 638 articles that match our autonomous vehicle and greenhouse gas keyword search, a 2016 article published in the journal Transportation Research Part A has been cited 612 times. If it has been cited so frequently, it is likely an important paper that you might want to read. The greater the number of times an article has been cited - the higher the potential significance or importance.