Library

Find journal articles, newspaper articles, book reviews etc.

Note: the search above won't find every article, for a more comprehensive search see the information below on databases.

To find relevant and good quality information for your work, searching databases is the most effective method. You have free access to a range of searchable databases though you may need your username and password to use some of them. Databases contain quality-assessed journal or newspaper articles on particular topics.

Databases

• Databases for Aerospace Engineering
• Databases for Civil Engineering
• Databases for Electronics and Electrical Engineering
• Databases for Mechanical Engineering

• For help using specific databases - see guides which are found by clicking on the "Full details of this resource" link on individual database records on the databases lists.

Internet sites

Technical Reports

Many research organisations make their research reports available for general use. Some reports are listed in the abstracts, indexes, and online databases mnetioned earlier. Other lists will be found in:

• CCLRC ePublication Archive - contains details of some UK Reports from the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils.
  
• NTIS (US National Technical Information Service) - A searchable database of technical reports from U.S. government sponsored research issued since 1990.

Standards

A standard or standard specification indicates the properties, dimension, performance, qualities and testing to which manufacturers and services are recommended to conform.

• British Standards Online - Includes full text of current, historic, and draft British Standards and more than 16/000 BSI adopted European and international standards. Also included are technical handbooks, codes of practice, guidelines, specifications for products, dimensions, and performance glossaries.
  
• ASTM - ASTM International is one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world -  a source for technical standards for materials, products, systems and services.
• ISO Online (International Organization for Standardization) - This service includes the catalogue of all ISO International Standards including drafts, complete lists of ISO members and technical committees and general background in ISO.

Internet sites for Aerospace Sciences

• American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronauts - This site provides a calendar of events, research and technical information, publications and educational and other services. The E-library search engine is available to the public, and non-subscribed titles are available for purchase. Sample issues of AIAA journals are provided. The strengths of the site are the search engine and the wide array of services offered.
• AERADE - Run by Cranfield University, this site enables you to search more than 30,000 good quality internet resources relevant to aerospace engineering and defence. Content includes Web sites, specialist databases, full text technical reports, engineering design data, conferences and news.
• NASA - Includes news, information on projects and access to databases such as the NASA Technical Reports Server.

Internet sites for Civil Engineering

• iCivil Engineer - A well-commended directory site which includes a search engine and web directory.
• ASCE Civil Engineering Database- Provides free access to over 100,000 abstracts from its publications since 1970 and updated monthly.
• Institution of Civil Engineers - an organisational web-site giving access to research information, conferences and training, recruitment and professional publications.

Internet sites for Electonic & Electrical Engineering

• Institution of Engineering and Technology - The web site of the recently merged IEE and IIE. The site provides access to publications (some require membership), information about conferences, events, careers and training. To access IEEE publications you should use the IEEE Xplore database.
• IEEE - The IEEE web site offers news, publications, and details of events and conferences.

Internet sites for Mechanical Engineering

• Institution of Mechanical Engineers - The web site of the UK professional body for Mechanical Engineers.

You might find some resources useful for your dissertation which we don't have available from this Library.

• Order books and journal articles using the Inter Library Loan service

A general introduction to referencing is available.

Referencing and citing – using your sources

What is referencing?

Referencing is the acknowledgement of items you have read and used while creating a written piece of work for your essay, dissertation, article or thesis.

It is important to keep an exact and complete record of the details of all the sources of information that you use for coursework, essays, dissertations or publications. Sources can include books, journal articles, web pages and legal cases. If you don’t keep a precise record you will have difficulty (and a lot more work) when you need to list the sources in your reference list.

Citations

When writing an essay, report or dissertation, it is usual to cite [mention] the sources that you used, referred to, or took quotes from. These references might describe journal or newspaper articles, books, government reports, web pages

Citing accurate references is important for the following reasons:

• To give credit to concepts and ideas from other authors
• To provide evidence of the extent of your reading
• To use other work to support the arguments you make
• To allow the user to locate the cited references easily
• To help you avoid plagiarism 

Which style of referencing does the School of Engineering use?

There are many styles for references, however, the most commonly used styles are Harvard (a version using author/date format) and Vancouver (numbered format). 

For detailed information, have a look at the Harvard Referencing guide from Leeds University.

Software for managing your references

There are a number of reference management software programs which help you to record and store references to books or journal articles and many other sources while you are working on a project. You can then use the stored information to generate bibliographies for your essay, thesis or article using a wide range of styles. The University supports EndNote. There are also a number of freely available pieces of reference management software.