Best Bets - Finding Articles - TTE Summer Research Program

Find Articles

The databases listed below include journal articles, technical reports, and conference papers in engineering and the physical sciences. Use UC-eLinks to link out to full text when available. For more options, visit our A-Z Databases.

Starting Points

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Note: To set up for full text article access, go into Settings → Library Links → add UC Berkeley
Lists journal articles, books, preprints, and technical reports in many subject areas (though more specialized article databases may cover any given field more completely). Can be used with "Get it at UC" to access the full text of many articles.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences and more.
Contains over 50 million records with more than half the content originating from outside North America. Indexes over 21,000 journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences, technology, medicine, arts, and humanities.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Indexes leading journals in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences. Allows cited reference searching. (ISI Web of Knowledge) [1900 - present]
Provides links to footnoted citations as well as sources that have subsequently cited an article. Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (from 1975), Science Citation Index (from 1900), and Social Sciences Citation Index (from 1900).

Subject Databases

Engineering Village This link opens in a new window
Access to this resource will be discontinued effective 12/31/23 due to library budget cuts. Comprehensive database for searching across journal articles, conference papers, and online handbooks in all engineering, computer science, and physics disciplines. Includes Compendex, Inspec, and Knovel. [1884-present]
Compendex is the primary literature database for engineering, Inspec is the primary literature database for physics, astronomy, electronics engineering, and computer science, and Knovel is a collection of engineering, chemistry, and physics handbooks.
ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Full text of every article ever published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and bibliographic citations from major publishers in computing. [1954 - present]
Provides full-text access to journals, magazines, transactions, conference proceedings and newsletters published by the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery). Includes most historical and all current publications.
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Journal and magazine articles, conference papers, and standards published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). [1872 - present]
Indexes IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) transactions, journals, magazines and conference proceedings published since 1988 and all current IEEE standards. It also includes IEE publications for the same time period (IEE is the
SciFinderⁿ This link opens in a new window
Search the world's most comprehensive source of references, substances, and reactions in chemistry and related sciences.
Note: Restricted to UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff. Requires creation of a personal account from an @berkeley.edu email address.
Indexes over 9,000 journals, patents, conferences, books, technical reports and dissertations related to chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science and the biomedical sciences. Relates to the print equivalent Chemical Abstracts.

Background & Terminology

Need to look up a term or concept that you encounter in an article? These tools can help you to find background information and definitions:

AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
Collection of full text engineering reference and handbooks, including Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook and Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers.
Knovel This link opens in a new window
Find technical information as well as analytical and search tools for the engineering community.
Collection of over 8000 engineering and scientific reference handbooks, texts, and databases. Can be searched by topic across the aggregated set, or users can browse the content of a specific title. Advanced features include numerical range searching and interactive graphs and tables.
Oxford Reference Online - Science and Technology This link opens in a new window
Scholarly online scientific encyclopedias and dictionaries, covering the biological and life sciences, astronomy, computing, earth sciences, nutrition, chemistry and more.
Access to dictionaries in the biological and life sciences, astronomy, computing, earth sciences, nutrition, chemistry and more published by Oxford University Press. Search sources collectively or search within an individual title.

Search Tips

Not happy with your results? Watch our video to learn how to:

expand your search if you are not finding enough results.
refine your search if you are finding too many results.

Reading Tips

Reading scientific articles can feel daunting. Understanding their different parts and learning to read them strategically can make it easier and save you time!

Infographic: How to read a scientific paper
A short introduction to the parts of scientific articles and a guide to strategically reading them

Get it at UC

Once you've searched an index to find articles, you may need to use Get it at UC to link to a PDF or html file if the full text is not immediately available. Each database is a bit different, but a good rule of thumb is:

When you see either icon, click on it to view your article access options (ex: full text, call number, Interlibrary Loan request, etc.)

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TTE Summer Research Program: Best Bets - Finding Articles