Key Resources
If you have a specific article you're searching for, Summon is a good place to start. Summon lets you simultaneously search the Library's book collection and many full text journal articles.
If you're searching for articles on a topic, you'll probably want to search a database which is more focused on engineering than Summon. Here are some starting points for finding engineering journal articles or conference proceedings. Look for the UBC eLink icons to check for full text articles.
Can't find an article? Contact your librarian; you might need to use our Interlibrary Loan service to get the article from another library (usually quickly and in PDF format).
- Compendex Engineering VillagePremier engineering database, covering the core literature of the engineering field, including related specialties and technologies.
- ScopusSearch citations and abstracts for journal articles, conference proceedings, and other resources in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Can also be used for cited reference searches, citation analysis of research and searching by affiliation.
- Web of Science Core CollectionMultidisciplinary database of journal articles and conference proceedings, used for citation analysis of research. Includes access to EndNote Basic, a web-based version of EndNote.
- Google ScholarFrom off-campus, use this link to Google Scholar to activate UBC eLinks to full text.
- The Lens combines both global patent and scholarly knowledge into a public resource. It serves over 200 million scholarly records and links to ORCID. All Lens data is fully open, shareable, and reusable. Lens.org offers robust discovery, analytics and management tools, including APIs for scholarly works, patents, and patent sequence data, Create/save queries, create collections, customize data analysis and visualizations, create interactive reports and download up to 50,000 records at a time.
More Databases
You may also want to search the following databases. Please note that not all of the articles you find in these databases will be available full text. You can check in Summon or the UBC Library Catalogue - or ask a librarian - to see if older articles are available in print at the Library. If UBC does not have an article, you can usually request it through Interlibrary Loan at no charge.
- Elsevier ScienceDirectThe Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals collection consists of over 1700 full text electronic journals covering topics in the physical sciences, applied sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and business and economics. The ScienceDirect platform also hosts and makes accessible other large ejournal collections, reference works, indexes and web search engines.
- IEEE Xplore Digital LibraryThe IEL database provides fulltext access to more than 140 technical journals, over 1000 standards, and approximately 900 annual conference proceedings published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
- PubMed (1946 - present)Premier database containing over 30 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a focus on biomedicine. Freely available and includes MEDLINE. This link goes to the version with UBC elink.
- SAE MobilusCovers research about air, land, sea and space mobility as well as injury biomechanics, accident reconstruction and occupant protection and safety.
- SciFinder-nAccess to Chemical Abstracts 1907-present. Use For: chemistry and chemical engineering, biochemistry, biotechnology, electrochemistry, metallurgy and materials science and pharmacology.
- SPIE Digital LibraryProvides access to research on all topics of optics and photonics research published in SPIE journals and conference proceedings.
Database Operators and Tools
There are search operators you can use throughout most databases, which help to include and exclude results.
- The word OR
- Broadens your search by capturing synonyms or variant spellings of a concept. It means you’re looking for results that have either of the terms.
- Example: wireless communication OR mobile communication will find results that have either term present
- The word AND
- Narrows a search by capturing two or more ideas or concepts. It means you’re looking for results that have both or all of the concepts.
- Example: bridge AND earthquake will find results that have both terms present
- Brackets/Parentheses ( ) gather OR’d synonyms of a concept together, while combining them with another concept
- Example: (earthquake OR seismic) AND liquefaction
- Quotation marks “ ” narrow your search by finding words together as a phrase, instead of separately
- Example: “British Columbia” will make sure you find the province of British Columbia, and won’t find other results where the words appear separately
- In many databases, an asterisk (*) will act as a truncation symbol, which expands your search results to find various endings of a word stem.
- Example: structur* will find structure, structures, structural, structured…
A good way to brainstorm relevant keywords is through controlled vocabulary or subject headings. They describe what the article is about, and can be found in the detailed view of an article record. The vocabulary or headings make up a list in the database known as a thesaurus. The thesaurus contains synonyms, as well as broader and narrower terms.