- Gather keywords when you perform background research
- Search and browse through indexes/controlled vocabulary resources like MESH or the IEEE Thesaurus to gather relevant index terms and subject headings
- Use both keywords and index terms when searching
- Use Boolean operators to broaden (OR) or narrow (AND, NOT) your search
- Use wildcards to truncate search terms (often *) in order to capture search results with variations on a word stem (e.g. biomechanic*)
- Quickly review the "Help" resources for the database you are searching
Many library databases let you start with a known document (for example, a journal paper) and generate references it cites and/or documents published later in time that cite it.
Benefits:
Contact a librarian to identify relevant databases and setting up email alerts for citing literature. Some starting points:
Links to PDFs when available; excellent for finding specific articles or books.
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources. (Note: To maximize access to Lehigh resources, when in Google Scholar, go to Settings, then Library links. Type in Lehigh University and select the check box next to “Lehigh University - Lehigh Links.” If we do not subscribe to an article, this setting will enable a Lehigh Link to obtain the article via other access or interlibrary loan.)
Helps find current articles that cite earlier work. Covers STEM, social sciences, & arts and humanities. Has an emerging sources citation index. Useful for identifying review articles Note: Web of Science generally does not include conference proceedings in search results.
PubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
PubMed also includes links to resources and tools from The National Center for Biotechnology Information, which gives access to biomedical and genomic information.
Major resource for chemistry research. Many capabilities it provides includes searching chemical literature, plus substance, reaction, structure searching, and property searching. Set up instructions can be found here.
Provides bibliographic coverage of journal articles in life sciences, especially focusing on biomedical areas. Part of PubMed's larger set of resources. See MEDLINE searching library guide off library homepage.
Indexes, abstracts and provides selective full-text for a broad spectrum of magazines, journals and newspapers.
Upgraded from Academic Search Premier in 2019.
Journals frequently used at Lehigh University in bioengineering research.