On This Page...

1. Pick Your Topic
2. Find Research Articles
3. Look for Books
4. Cite your Sources

Pick your Topic

Start with the "Table of Contents" for these eBooks to get topic ideas. After you choose a topic, use the full entry in the books to get basic information to lead you to additional resources.

• History of American Technology
• Encyclopaedia of the History of Technology

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Find Research Articles

IEEE Explore

1. In the search box in the center of the page, begin typing your topic.
2. A drop down list of related topics or terms will appear. Choose the one that most closely matches what you're looking for and click search.
3. On the results screen, note the left hand menu bar. Here you can limit to journal articles by checking the box next to "Journals" in the "Content Type" box, limit to a range of publication dates, and more.
4. To read an abstract, or summary, of an article on your results list, click on the title or on the AbstractPlus link.
5. Most content is available full text. Just click the PDF link at the bottom of each citation. If the PDF link isn't live (clickable), ask your librarian to help you find a copy of the article in the library or request a copy from another library.

Compendex and INSPEC

These two databases have the same search interfaces, so the directions below apply to both.

Searching for Articles

1. Type your topic into the search bar. For the ethics in engineering assignment, you might want to try entering this: ethic$ . The dollar sign at the end tells the database to search for any form of the word ethic, for example, ethics or ethical.
2. On your results page, click "All Limit Options" to narrow your list of results.
3. You'll probably want to specify that you only want English language articles.
4. You'll also want to choose "Journal Paper" under "Record Type."
5. If your results list is still too large after applying these limits, click the button next to "Search in current results" and type in additional keywords. This tells the database that you want articles that meet all the previous criteria and also include the new term you entered.
6. Repeat step 5 above until you have a manageable list of results.

Finding Full-Text

1. When you have a manageable results list, click on the title of an article (in blue underlined font) to see an abstract, or summary, of the article. This will give more details about the content of the article.
2. After reading the abstract, if you want the entire article, or full text, click the "Find It" button. If the complete article is available online, you'll see a link to it highlighted in blue on the new window that opens. If there is no blue highlighted link, that means that the complete article is not available online.
3. If you have a link to the full text, click it and you'll go to a new database. You should see an abstract of the article again. Look for a link to the PDF or HTML text and click it. From there you should be able to print, save, or email yourself the article.
4. If you have no yellow highlighted link but you still want the article, contact a your librarian. We can help you find a copy in the library or walk you through requesting a copy from another library if necessary.

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Look for Books

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Cite Your Sources

APA Style Guides

• Online: The OWL Purdue's Online Writing Lab for APA.
• Online: Diane Hacker's APA Guide

Free Citation Generators

• BibMe Free Citation Generator
• Son of Citation Machine Free Citation Generator.

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