(revised by Pu Zhang, 2/12/2019)
How to Search Literature?
As graduate students, it is a very basic skill to learn how to do literature search, especially for the latest publications, to grasp knowledge created so far and stay in the frontier of research. Here I summarize a few methods to do literature search.
- Google Scholar. Google scholar is probably the first tool to use when one searches literature. The default setting sorts the search results by citations so you can find the most influential literature for one topic. An advantage (and also disadvantage) of google scholar is that it results in too many (irrelevant) items.
- ISI Web of Science. This database is a collection of almost all the major journals in STEM. It has a few advanced search options to refine your results, e.g. by limiting publication sources, fields, countries, etc. It usually takes a couple months until info of newly published papers is input into this database.
- Scopus. This database is similar to the ISI web of science. An advantage of scopus is that it has profiles of individual researchers. This database is relatively new so it does not contain early literature.
- Publisher Web. Each publisher has its own search tools on their website. For mechanical engineers and material scientists, the major publishers are like Science, Nature, Wiley, Elsevier (Sciencedirect), Springer, APS, AIP, ACS, RSC, IOP, etc.
- ProQuest. This database is useful to find thesis/dissertation.
- Review Papers. Some well-written review papers contain bibliography of all the important works for one topic. Hence reading the review papers is also a good start.
- Press & Youtube. Nowadays many institutes report their research works to technological press or Youtube. This is also a good source to find interesting works.
How to Track Literature?
PhD students are expected to keep tracking on new progress in their fields. Some tools may help PhD students track new publications or research works.
- Google Scholar Profiles. If you follow the profile of any researchers, new articles will be sent to your email once it is added to their profiles.
- ISI Web of Science. This database provides a topic alert service if you save the search results in your account. Once new items are found for these topics, the website will send email alerts to you either daily or weekly.
- Journal Alerts. Each journal has its own link for readers to subscribe to the new articles (email alert or RSS feed). This is a way to track publications out of your field to broaden your scope.
- Conference Program. No matter you attend a conference or not, it is meaningful to check the programs of relevant symposiums, which are free to all. Many researchers present their works in conferences before publishing so you may find some cutting-edge progress in conference programs. Some major conferences in applied mechanics and materials include IMECE, SES, EMI, USNCCM, USNCTAM, MRS, McMat, SMASIS, PACAM, ICTAM, ESMC, etc.
However, do not get lost in the vast sea of information !