Energy Graduate Group

SEARCH SKILLS TO LEARN: 
Where to search? Use Subject Guides to find relevant database(s), use database descriptions to choose appropriate databases. 
What search terms to use? Start with what you have, be open to new terms, adapt, keep search notes 
Basic Article database searching skills: 
   Most databases allow: truncation; adding alternate terms; boolean searching; sorting, refining & exporting results.  
   Some show citations for articles.  

Major Databases

Web of Science                                        Covers All Disciplines

Use Web of Science to find scholarly articles in all disciplines.  This database can also be used to identify articles that cite an author or article that you specify. Coverage: 1900 – present.  Cited Reference Searching:  1900 – present.

• Web of Science Help
• Citation/Email Alerts – Web of Science does 2 kinds:
  • Auto-Alert:   Email me (weekly or monthly) when articles are published on a given topic.
    HOW?:  Sign-in to WOS.  Run Search.  Click: CREATE AN ALERT  (top left).  Manage Alerts in: SEARCHES AND ALERTS (top right).
    WOS Help:  Save History/Create Alert
  • Citation-Alert:   Email me when someone cites article X.
    HOW?:  Sign-in to WOS.  Find article, click on title.  Click:  CREATE CITATION ALERT (on right)
    WOS Help:  Citation Alerts

Scopus                                                        Covers All Disciplines

Scopus indexes, selectively abstracts and provides citation analysis for approximately 20,000 peer-reviewed journals from more than 5,000 international publishers, as well as 2,600 open access journals, published sets of conference proceedings, trade publications, books, patents (from the USPTO, European Patent Office, Japan Patent office, World Intellectual Property Organization and the UK Intellectual Property Office) and millions of selected web pages. Coverage extends across disciplines in the life and health sciences, the physical sciences, the social sciences and the arts and humanities.

Scopus Help

Compendex                                               Main Database for Engineering

The most comprehensive bibliographic database of engineering research literature, containing references to over 5000 engineering journals and conferences. About half the citations (from 2600 journals and conferences) include abstracts and indexing in the records.  Coverage: 1884 – present.

• Compendex Help
• Citation/Email Alert – Compendex

SciFinder^N   (new platform)   –OR–   “Classic” SciFinder           Main Database for Chemistry

Registration Required     (login to VPN to access registration page from off-campus)

SciFinder is the most comprehensive bibliographic database for scholarly research in the field of chemistry. It contains over 52 million citations and indexes over 50,000 journals, covering all aspects of chemistry, including chemical aspects of: biology and life sciences, engineering and materials science, food science, geology, medicine, physics, and polymer science. SciFinder also allows searching of chemical substances, chemical reactions, and includes some property data and spectra. It is the online version of Chemical Abstracts.
     Coverage: 1907 – present    (with selected pre-1907 material)
     Cited Reference Searching:  1996 – present    (allows you to identify who is citing an article)

SciFinder Auto-Alert:  Keep Me Posted    Receive an email when new articles are published you your topic
SciFinder System Recommendations/Structure Editor/Java (optional)
SciFinder can only be used by UC students, faculty and staff.
SciFinder^N (new platform) Help – How to Use   “Classic” SciFinder Help – How to Use       SciFinder Troubleshooting

Additional Databases

Academic Search Complete

Articles from popular magazines and scholarly journals for the humanities, social sciences, physical and biological sciences, engineering, business and interdisciplinary fields, with over 5,500 full-text periodicals. Also includes indexing for some newspapers, books and primary sources.  Coverage: 1887 – present.

Policy Resources

PAIS Index

Indexes all types of materials in the area of public affairs and public policy – journal articles, books and book chapters, reports, government documents. Topics include agriculture, banking, demographics, education, environment, finance, government, health, law, legislation, political science, social sciences, and statistics.

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)

PPIC publications range from 1 page fact sheets to  in-depth reports, focusing on higher education, water policy, and statewide issues.  PPIC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that conducts fact-based research to help the state find practical responses to a range of policy challenges.

Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center provides public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research, without taking a policy position.  The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.

EnergyWire/ E&E News

News on energy and environment issues from E&E News, a Washington, D.C. online news organization that covers energy and environmental policy, markets and science.

Government and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Resources

NTRL:  National Technical Reports Library

NTRL provides access to government-sponsored research, development and technical reports with full-text access to reports that have been digitized. Searches over 3 million reports with links to over 800,000 full-text reports.  Coverage: 1964-

OSTI.gov  (Dept of Energy, Office of Scientific & Technical Information)

DOE funded science, technology, and engineering research.  Includes: DOE (& predecessor) journal articles, manuscripts, and related metadata; technical reports; datasets; scientific software; patents; conference and workshop papers.

DTIC: Defense Technical Information Center

U.S. Department of Deference (DoD) and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information.

Options for accessing online journal articles are numerous and evolving.  See below for options.  Help or links to short videos are included.

Note: some of these options rely on new techniques for accessing library subscribed content (and therefore only work for journals where we have a paid online subscription).  Others provide easy access to open access articles or pre-prints, where no subscription is required.

For definitive info on what the UC Davis Library subscribes to:

Use the  UCD Library Catalog  or  MELVYL catalog  or  the  Journals A-Z list

Use Interlibrary Loan:

to request articles  and books  we do not own or subscribe to

1. Google Scholar:    Configure to Show UC-eLinks

This allows you to easily access articles the UC Davis Library subscribes to online.
NOTE: to access subscribed content from off-campus, you must install and login to the VPN client.

From the Google Scholar Settings page:

Click on Library Links in the left toolbar

Search for and check these options:  (as shown in the image below)

California Digital Library –UC-eLinks
University of California, Davis – UCD-eLinks
Open WorldCat – Library Search

Click SAVE

Now when you search in Google Scholar: you should see the  UC-eLinks link on the right side of your search results.

1-2.  ADD Google Scholar  Button:

A browser add-on which installs a browser button for easy access to Google Scholar from any web page.

Search google for:”Google scholar button [name of your browser]”

Kopernio video, 1 minute

Unpaywall video, 1 minute

Similar to Unpaywall, the Open Access button provides both Chrome and Firefox extensions/plug-ins, or your can enter DOIs or citation info at the OA website.

Clicking on the extension button from a paywalled article initiates a search for that article and, where available, provides free access. When free access is not found, OA Button can contact the corresponding author directly to help them make a self-archived version available.

Open Access Button video, 1 minute

COVID-19 – while library buildings are closed:

ALL online materials:     still available (articles, databases, ebooks) you must use VPN to access.

ALL Print materials:        unavailable  (in print form)

TWO OPTIONS FOR GETTING ONLINE ACCESS TO **SOME (NOT ALL)** PRINT HOLDINGS:

HathiTrust:

Many in copyright print titles owned by UC campuses are temporarily available thru HathiTrust.
Read online only, no downloading, 60 minute checkouts, can be extended while you are actively using

1. Click yellow LOG IN button (in upper right) .
2. Select “University of California, Davis” and log in using your campus credentials.
3. Search the HathiTrust digital library to locate the item you wish to view.
4. Click on the Temporary Access link at the bottom of the record to Check Out the item through the Emergency Temporary Access Service.

National Emergency Library:

Available to anyone, no UC credentials required.  Contains primarly older materials.

Library Catalog  

The Library Catalog tells you what the UC Davis library owns, what the call number is, where it is located, and whether or not it is checked out.  If there is an electronic version that we subscribe to, the link will be in the catalog.
Use the catalog to locate books, journals, government documents, dissertations, maps, music scores & recordings, movies, and any other materials the library owns.

MELVYL UC  Library Catalog                  Melvyl Help

The MELVYL catalog tells you what all UC campus libraries own, and also searches other institutions.  As with the UCD Library Catalog, MELVYL gives records for books, journals, government documents, dissertations, maps, music scores & recordings, movies, and other materials.
MELVYL does index some articles but is not a good option for searching for articles in the sciences. (Click on the ARTICLES link in this guide to access article databases.)

The REQUEST button:      allows you to request items from other institutions (UC and non-UC).

 

GOOGLE Books                                Google Books Help

Library catalogs only search catalog entries (author, title, subject indexing, etc) not the full text of the book
Google Books searches full-text of books (only titles that Google has scanned), but you cannot access most of them (because they are still under copyright)

But you can use Google Books to identify titles you might be interested in.
–Use Google Books to search for phrases or topics you are interested in (works well for technical terms).
–Then search for the title of the book(s) in the UCD Library Catalog or Melvyl

UC Davis ChemWiki

The ChemWiki is a collaborative approach toward chemistry education where an Open Access textbook environment is constantly being written and re-written by students and faculty members resulting in a free Chemistry textbook to supplant conventional paper-based books. The development of the ChemWiki is currently directed by UC Davis Professor Delmar Larsen.

The UC Davis STEMWiki Hyperlibrary consists of seven pseudo-independently operating and interconnected “STEMWikis” that focus on augmenting post-secondary education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.

WorldCat Catalog

OCLC catalog: millions of records for books, journal titles and materials in other formats from approximately 12,000 libraries worldwide.  Coverage: 1000 A.D. to the present.

Annual Reviews,   1996-on

Critical reviews covering primary research literature in the biomedical, life, physical, and social sciences. Can provide a good overview topics you are not familiar with. Chemical fields covered include: analytical chemistry; biochemistry; physical chemistry; pharmacology and toxicology; and chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Online:  1996 – present.

Tables of Contents only: 1984 – 1995.  Use the library catalog to find these in print.

Elsevier eBooks,   2013-on, SELECTED TITLES

Over 3,000 books with 2013- current publication dates. The Elsevier eBook license comes with broad and favorable rights for scientific, scholarly and educational uses.

RSC eBooks,   1968-on

The RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) ebooks package, includes over 1000 books published since 1968, including the Specialist Periodical Reports series and Tutorial Chemistry Texts.

Springer eBooks,   2005-on, SELECTED TITLES

Springer ebooks package includes over 28,000 scholarly books, covering all scientific disciplines.  Books are published in English and German.  Book series in chemistry include:

Wiley eBooks,   2011-on, SELECTED TITLES

Over 1300 ebooks focused on chemistry, physical sciences, biosciences & engineering.  The UC’s purchased all 2011 and 2012 ebooks, including IEEE ebooks (older years on IEEE Xplore platform).

ALL Journals  (that UC Davis subscribes to):

Use the  UCD Library Catalog  or  MELVYL catalog to find which journals we subscribe to,  either online or in print.

Online subscriptions:   the catalog will give the link.  NOTE: we sometimes get online content for different years from different sources, R-E-A-D the fine print.
Print subscriptions:     the catalog will give you the call number, location, and indicate whether or not it is checked out.

Journals A-Z List:

Lists  journals that UC Davis has a online or print subscription to.

Google Scholar

You can use Google Scholar to search for journals (or articles).  Google has no way of telling you which online journals UC Davis subscribes to, unless you set your Google Scholar preferences to show UC-eLinks (see ARTICLE PLUG-INS & QUICK ACCESS above).

Google Scholar:  How do you actually GET the articles?

On-Campus:    You should be able to access any online journal that UC Davis subscribes to.
Off-Campus:    You must install the VPN client first, to access online journals UC Davis subscribes to.

No UCD Online Subscription?:  We may have a print subscription.  Check the library catalog .  If we do not have a print or online subscription, you can request articles through Interlibrary Loan.

Use the resources below to access encyclopedias and “overviews”, these:

• can provide focused, highly useful summary of topics, processes and products.
• can be extremely useful in narrowing your topic, understanding the scope of your inquiry, and/or getting up to speed on a complex topic quickly.

CRCNetBase:  Engineering Handbooks

A large collection of online engineering handbooks, full-text and searchable.   Extremely useful for:

• expanding your topic,
• getting a broad overview of your topic, or,
• getting a highly focused book reference (available as a PDF, and substantially shorter than a typical book).

Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology

An online encyclopedia focused on chemical engineering, a very good resource for topics involving manufactured items, materials, or processes used in manufacturing.

Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry

Another online encyclopedia focused on chemical engineering, Ullmann’s is also a very good resource for topics involving manufactured items, materials, or processes used in manufacturing.

FOR ADDITIONAL PROPERTY INFORMATION, SEE:

        Properties tab, Chemistry Subject Guide

        Handbooks/Properties tab, Materials Science Subject Guide                        

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

Print Location: PSE Reference QD65 C4 [year]

CRCNetBase

A large collection of engineering handbooks.  Provides a broad focus on engineering.

AccessEngineering     3 year pilot, through 12/2021.  Send feedback or questions to Cory Craig

AccessEngineering is an engineering reference tool that provides access to a collection of authoritative, regularly updated engineering reference information.  It includes dynamic online features, such as faculty made instructional, videos, calculators, interactive tables and charts, as well as personalization tools allowing users to organize crucial project information.

This large collection includes classic handbooks such as Perry’s Handbook for Chemical Engineers and Marks’ Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, as well as newer resources, such as Mechatronics in Medicine.

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is an independent, non-profit, community-driven organization that provides unique, persistent identifiers (ORCID iDs) for researchers in all fields.

ORCID iDs:

• resolve name ambiguity
• integrate your work in the digital scholarly ecosystem
• will soon make it possible to create an automatically updated list of your publications (if:  you include your ORCID iD when submitting manuscripts; enable the Auto-Update feature; publishers allow/require ORCID iDs as part of manuscript submission, as increasing numbers are doing).  

How to get one:

Go to  ORCID  and click “register now” to obtain an ORCID iD.

Recommended:

• Use the search & link wizards to add your works (publications and other scholarship)
• Use the search & link wizards to list funding you have received

All aspects of your ORCID record are entirely under your control.

What it’s used for // How to improve your profile and correct errors

• Include your ORCID iD when submitting manuscripts (where possible/required)
• Link other IDs you have to your ORCID iD (Web of Science Reseacher ID, Scopus Author ID, Loop profile, etc.).
• Consider unifying the “beyond the PDF” aspects of your scholarship (Google Scholar Profile, Twitter account, blog, FigShare, GitHub, ImpactStory, etc.) by listing them in the “Websites” section of your ORCID iD.
• Include your ORCID iD on your: departmental web page/profile,  C.V.,  email signature, twitter profile, grants, and anywhere else you provide a list of your work.

If you have publications indexed in Google Scholar, you can create a profile that will show up when people search on your name. It will display your publications, any information you provide, and a set of metrics including h-index.

How to get one:

Go to Google Scholar Citations  and sign in with your Google account. You will then be asked for your name, affiliation, etc. Next, Google Scholar will automatically suggest publications to add to your profile. Select the ones that are yours to add to your profile. Add your research interests as keywords, which can then be used to search on by people looking for other researchers in a field.

What it’s used for:

A Google Scholar profile will show up at the top of results when people search for your publications in Google Scholar. It increases visibility of your work by providing a bibliography, indicates which publications are yours if you share a common name. It also shows a citation count to your work, provides an H-index measure.

How to improve your profile and correct errors

See Google’s FAQ for answers to how to add missing publications or correct other errors.

To find Google Scholar profiles for other UC Davis reseachers:

Search Google  for: “Verified email at ucdavis.edu” chemistry -label    [replace “chemistry” with subject/topic of interest]
Or click:     Verified email at ucdavis.edu” chemistry -label

How to get one:

Go to ResearcherID   and click “join now”, and enter your information. You will be sent an email; click on the link in the email and finish entering your information (such as your

institution name) to create the ResearcherID. You will then be able to link the ID to ORCID.

What it’s used for:

ResearcherID, like ORCID and SCOPUS author ID, is used to tell authors with similar names apart and produce profiles of author work. If you use Endnote or Web of Science, ResearcherID ties into these systems seamlessly. Use your ResearcherID on your CV, grants, and other profiles.

How to improve your profile and correct errors

Once you have gotten the ResearcherID, you can add to your publications list by clicking “add publications” and then searching Web of Science, adding a RIS file from Endnote or RefManager, or connecting directly to Endnote. You can also connect to ORCID, and import the publications from your ORCID profile (or vice-versa).

How to get one:

If you have publications indexed by SCOPUS, you have automatically been assigned a SCOPUS author ID number. You can check this by going to SCOPUS  and entering your information.

What it’s used for:

In addition to being the tool SCOPUS uses to identify authors, some grant agencies will ask you for SCOPUS ID numbers.
How to improve your profile and correct errors.

How to improve your profile and correct errors

If there are errors in your profile, you can fill out the author feedback form: in SCOPUS, run an author search, click on the author’s name, then on the link that says “request author detail corrections.”
You can add your SCOPUS ID to your ORCID profile by clicking “add to ORCID” from your author page in SCOPUS; directions are here.  Once you do this, you will be asked to log into ORCID, to verify that you authorize SCOPUS to access your ORCID account, and then you will walk through adding the appropriate SCOPUS profile and publications to your ORCID profile.

Advanced Google: Limited Domain Search

• Limited Domain Search: lets you limit where Google searches to find more robust results

  • Example:  energy policy information – is likely to be on the web, but where?  See example searches in the chart below.
    • government websites (yes, definitely, search all *.gov or specific agencies)
    • university/college websites (likely)
    • non-profits (maybe? think tanks?)
    • commercial web sites (probably not?)

Advanced Google: quotes, proximity, filetype

MENDELEY:   What it is & How to Get Help

Mendeley is citation management software.
Creating an account will give you access to both the web version and the desktop version.

Mendeley: Getting Started Guide

Covers:

• getting references into and out of Mendeley
• using Mendeley with Word
• Citation Styles, Journal Abbreviations, Managing References, Sharing & Collaborating

ENDNOTE:   What it is & How to Get Help

Endnote is citation management software that allows you to store, manage, and format bibliographic citations, and easily change formatting of citations in Word documents.  Available free to UC Davis students, faculty & staff (campus has a site license).
Two versions are available:

• Endnote client/desktop:   Requires installation of software, more powerful, best choice for faculty and grad students. 
  
• Endnote Online:   Requires online registration.  Usually the best choice for undergraduate students.  
  

Endnote: Getting Started Guide: 

Covers (for both versions):

• getting references into and out of Endnote
• using Endnote with Word
• setting up Endnote Libraries, Preferences, Groups, and Journal Abbreviations

Citing the Literature:    Citation Formats & Journal Abbreviations for Physical Sciences & Engineering

Citation Guides:
Commonly used citation styles including: APA, CSE, Chicago, MLA and others.

ACS Style Guide, Chapter 14:
American Chemical Society (ACS) guidelines for citations of all types. See Table 14-2 (pgs 292-293) for common types of references with examples.

ACS Style Guide:    An important reference for all chemists. In addition to providing citation guidelines, the ACS Style Guide includes chapters on:

• Ethics in Scientific Publication
• Writing Style and Word Usage
• Peer Review
• Copyright Basics
• Electronic Submission of Manuscripts
• conventions for forumulas, elements, substances, tables, etc.

Print: PSE  Library Reference: QD8.5 A25 [YEAR]

CASSI Journal Abbreviations:
Use to look up journal abbreviations used in chemistry.

Engineering:  IEEE Citation Reference    5 page PDF
Short & efficient guide to IEEE/engineering citation format.

Engineering:  IEEE Editorial Style Manual    23 page PDF
Citation formats and editorial guidelines for IEEE Transactions, Journals, and Letters.  Includes abbreviations for IEEE publications.

Guides created for library classes taught for the Energy Graduate Group are listed here.

EGG-200: Outline, ORCID, CRediT, Almetric Slides  Class 4/13/20

Guide Background:

2020: developed, updated, used by C. Craig as subject guide.