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Inspec Research Guide. IET, the Institution of Engineering and Technology

Inspec Guide for ECE, ME/NRE, PMASE, GTRI

Search Inspec (Engineering Village), 1896 to present

  • GT Library's Inspec subscription database, 1896 to present. Elsevier's Engineering Village platform
  • Search both the Inspec database and the Compendex database together; check both boxes under Databases.  These two databases are complementary and only have about a 20 percent overlap. Duplicate records can be removed by clicking of "Remove Duplicates" (left column) and "Database Preference"
  • Inspec can be combined with other Engineering Village databases. The NTIS technical report database (links to selected NTRL "Full text") and the pulp and paper technology Paperchem database are also Engineering Village databases. Engineering Village has Knovel bibliographic records ("View in Knovel" or "Find It @ GT"); the GT Library subscribes to the (selected) full text Knovel database.

IET's Inspec Database Description

  • The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Inspec database, containing over 15 million records, is the world's largest and most comprehensive English-language bibliographic database in physics, electronics and computing. Developed from 'Science Abstracts', first published in January 1898, Inspec scans over 4,000 journals, 2,000 conference proceedings, books and other formats, much of which is not available anywhere else. E-mail alerts can be set-up.
  • Inspec's five main subject areas covered are physics; electrical engineering and electronics; computers and control; information technology for business; and mechanical and production engineering.

Inspec Guides

Engineering Village Guides

  • Engineering Village Support. Access and Use Support Center
  • Support training
  • Support Center - Top row, right side [click on "?"]. Drop down menu. FAQs, Release notes, Knowledge base, Support overview
  • Engineering Village Top FAQs
  • Engineering Village tutorials
  • Cited in Scopus. Citations’ display - the total number of times that the Engineering Village document has been cited in Scopus.
  • Compendex references.  The Compendex references refer to information used to publish a Compendex document. These references display on the ‘Compendex References’ tab on the left side of the record page.

Engineering Village Search Hints

  • Search databases simultaneously. Check relevant boxes "Databases"
  • Sort by Date (Newest) or Relevance
  • Truncation. Multi-character wildcard asterisk (*) to search for words that begin with the same letters, such as simulat*. Asterisk (*) to search any number of characters internally, such as catalog*e.
  • Single character wildcard (?) to replace a single characters, such as wom?n
  • Quotation marks ("xxxx") for exact phrases. Enclose stop words in brackets or quotation marks "near infrared"
  • Use top row "Search history" to combine previous search statements, using Boolean operators. "View all results"
  • Use nested (with parenthesis) Boolean operators to combine terms
    • OR -- To broaden a search; allow for variant spellings; results include any specified term
      • #1 OR #2 OR #3 [retrieve records from any of the three search statements, using Search History]
      • simulat* OR model* OR mathemat* OR algorithm* [every record contains at least one of these four terms]
    • AND -- To narrow the scope of a search; results contain all specified terms
      • radar AND countermeasure* [both terms must be contained in every record]  
    • NOT -- To eliminate terms from a search
  • To narrow a search (too many records)
    • Proximity operatorsnear/# (within # words, in any order)
    • Field qualifier: limit to a field, such as Title, Author, etc.
    • Search history (Results - View all results) to combine previous search statements, e.g., (#1 OR #2) AND #3
  • Thesaurus. Inspec and Compendex (not NTIS and PaperChem). Top row "Search" drop down menu "Thesaurus." The Thesaurus has a hierarchical structure. Includes Scope Notes; Related terms; Top terms; Narrower terms; Broader terms; Prior terms. Search by Exact term, Vocabulary search, Browse. Database. Inspec and Compendex can have different thesaurus terms (search both).
  • Change "Display" -- "results per page" to 100
  • Can use Browse Indexes to search Author names. Watch for all variations; with and without the comma; with and without space between initials; full first name or only initials
  • Duplicate records (Inspec, Compendex, PaperChem) can be removed by clicking of "Remove Duplicates" (left column) and "Database Preference." Applies to only the first 1000 records.  NTIS records are included in the result.
  • Top right "Create account" "Sign in." Register (free) to save search queries, records, preferences, and set up automatic Alerts. One search statement line is saved.
  • Selected Records -- email, print, download selected records. Choose either Abstract or Detailed record. Can download to EndNote, RIS, text, RTF, etc
  • Engineering Village's new search engine: Summary of changes
  • Top row: Date, Language, Document Type, Sort by, Browse indexes
  • Fast, not comprehensive search: Document Type Journal; Language English; date. Icon "Find It @ GT" works properly for linking to full text for most journals. For NTIS, use "Full text"
  • Leave "Autostemming ON" to automatically stem terms