Key Resources
Academic databases
Academic databases usually contain the most up-to-date and in-depth information on your topic. While Scholar OneSearch is a great place to start your research, subject-specific databases can give you more focused results. For topics in Engineering and Computer Science, try:
- ACM Digital Library (Association for Computing Machinery) This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to most periodicals and conference proceedings from a leading computer engineering society. Covers 1985 to the present, including proceedings and publications of affiliated societies.
- Engineering Village This link opens in a new windowCombines the citations and full text links of Compendex and Inspec with full text books from Knovel, for a more comprehensive search on computer science and engineering topics.
- IEEEXplore (IEEE/IET Electronic Library) This link opens in a new windowThe Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers is the world's largest association for the advancement of technology. This database gives access to technical literature in engineering and technology, and includes select content published since 1950 from IEEE journals, transactions, magazines, conference proceedings, and standards.
- Computers & Applied Sciences Complete (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowCitations and abstracts for more than 1,800 academic journals (730 in full text), professional publications, and other reference sources from a diverse collection relating to computer science. Links to full text for Northeastern-subscribed journals.
- Web of Science, All Databases This link opens in a new windowUse this link for access to citation tracking and subject searching of scholarly literature. Data visualizations, alerts, and journal impact factors. Includes the Web of Science Core Collection. One of the largest curated databases of scholarly research, with citations in some subjects from 1900 to the present.
- Scopus and Scopus AI This link opens in a new windowEnter a natural language query and receive results from the largest multidisciplinary abstract and citation database including graphical representations showing connections among keywords, pointers to influential papers, and suggested related queries to further your research.
- Scite.ai This link opens in a new windowAn AI-powered research platform that analyzes and provides citation context for scientific papers, helping researchers evaluate the credibility and impact of scholarly articles. Account registration is necessary for some features.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowStatistics brought together from governments, industry, international organizations, scholarly societies, polls, and more. Expressed as easy-to-use charts, some data is downloadable.
- Ulrichs Web This link opens in a new windowThis website helps you determine if a publication is "peer reviewed". Search the title of the journal...the referee shirt means it's reviewed, or "refereed"!
Tutorial: Finding Peer Reviewed Articles (view PDF version and more peer-review tutorials)
Reference Resources
Reference databases and encyclopedias
Reference materials don't offer up-to-the-minute research, but they do provide important context and background information on a broad array of topics. A selection of reference databases is listed below.
- Encyclopedia BritannicaOne of the largest and most-used encyclopedias in the world.
- Encyclopedia of Information Science and TechnologyEncyclopedia of Information Science and Technology is focused specifically on the field of information science.
- Encyclopedia of Materials: Electronics (Opens in new window)All aspects of electronics materials including ceramic, photonic, nanoscale, magnetic, and more. Useful for researchers in engineering, robotics, health sciences, energy and power systems, chemistry and more. Published by Elsevier (2023)
- Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology (Opens in new window)Covers all aspects of the materials sciences, useful for researchers in engineering, physics, chemistry and the biomedical sciences. Published by Elsevier (2001-2011).
- IEEE Editorial Style ManualIEEE webpage, contains the complete guidelines for manuscript presentation and citation referencing for IEEE publications, and related information.
- Knovel LibraryA core reference source for engineering, Knovel Library provides engineering-specific definitions, data sets, and materials information from a large library of textbooks, reference manuals, dictionaries and encyclopedias.
- O'Reilly for Higher EducationFocused on computer and information science, O'Reilly contains many handbooks and references. To access, set up an account with your Northeastern email address.
Need help with writing?
Support from Northeastern's Writing Center includes:
- Writing in STEM - a list of guides and other resources for learning to write in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields
- Writing Resources - for topics like grammar and style, vocabulary, revision techniques, support for multilingual writers, and other campus resources
- Tutoring services - book an appointment for free help with brainstorming, planning, researching, organizing, drafting, revising and using sources.
Need a quick refresh on your research skills?
The library has many more research tutorials on common research questions and skills. To see what else is available, visit the library's Research Tutorials page.