Key reference material and databases for chemical engineering literature reviews, and tips for choosing keywords, evaluating, and refining search results.

1. How not to reinvent the wheel
or Literature Searching for ENCH400
2012

2. Our mission is…
 Literature review on a topic
 Proposal
 Lots of research
 Mass balances – calculations
 Look for different processing routes
 Oral presentation and report
 Experiments
 Report

3. We already know...
We get information from:
 Internet – Google, Wikipedia
 People – Lecturers, mentors, other students
 Library resources:
 Textbooks
 MultiSearch
 ScienceDirect
 Google Scholar
 Journals (browsing by subject)

4. We need to know...
 How to find papers
 Structure and layout of the literature review
 What to include and what not to include
 How do you know if it’s a good article or not?
 Methods to include the information without
directly copying

5. The Literature
You

6. The Research Process
Define your topic
What information do you need?
Who would have written about it? Where?
Find information
Judge it – is it reliable? relevant?
– does it point in new directions?
– is it enough? or do you still need more?
Analyse and synthesise
Cite all sources!

7. Key reference material

8. Key databases
Compendex aka Engineering journal/conference articles
“who’s cited who”, review articles
SciFinder Chemistry journal articles & data
“who’s cited who”, review articles
Web of Science aka General science/engineering articles
“who’s cited who”, review articles
Scopus General science/engineering articles
“who’s cited who”, review articles
MultiSearch Searches widely
* Off-campus, log-in via top bar
Google Scholar Searches widely, “who’s cited who”
* Edit Settings -> Library Links

9. Choosing keywords
What criteria do I use in choosing keywords to
search for?
• Choose the main words from the initial question
If not enough results:
• Use fewer words (or broader synonyms)
• Use the root of words – eg magnetic*, produc*
If too many results:
• Use more words (or more specific synonyms)
• Exclude subjects – NOT methanol (Google Scholar
uses -methanol instead)
• Search for a phrase with quotes eg “lysine production”

10. Evaluating resources
Is it… and...
relevant?
Who is it written for?
basic/advanced?
What kind of research is it?
up-to-date? How far along is the research?
What questions haven’t they answered yet?
accurate?

11. Filtering results
How do I refine/filter the search results to get
useful and reliable resources?
• Read the title
• Read the abstract
• Check the keywords – can use these in new searches
• Check the article’s reference list for older articles
• Check who else has cited the article for newer research
• Use the “Refine” column to narrow by
subject, author, year, document type (eg “review”
articles for an overview of the state of research)

12. Contact me
 Chat
 Meet
 Email