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Inspec Research Guide

IET (The Institution of Engineering and Technology) - Inspec database

Search Inspec (Engineering Village), 1896 to present

Go to the Inspec database!

The Inspec database (Engineering Village platform, 1896 to present) is available to only Georgia Tech registered users.

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"

The NTIS technical report database and the pulp and paper technology Paperchem database are also Engineering Village databases.

Quick Search Hints

  • Sort by Date (Newest) or Relevance
  • Truncation.  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.
  • 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 search history to combine previous search statements, using Boolean operators.Top row "Results" - "View all results" - "Search history"
  • 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 operators:  near/# (within # words, in any order)
    • Field qualifier: limit to a field, such as Title, Author, Controlled (subject) term, Subject/Title/Abstract field
    • Search history (Results - View all results) to combine previous search statements, e.g., (#1 OR #2) AND (#3 OR model*)
  • Inspec Thesaurus (Search - Thesaurus) terms can be different from Compendex Thesaurus terms. Related terms; narrower terms; broader 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
  • Advanced Options. Top row: Date, Language, Document Type, Sort by, Browse indexes, Autostemming (turn ON)
    • Document Type (limit to Journal articles - for quick, not comprehensive searches, etc.)
    • Language (English, etc.)
    • Leave "Autostemming ON" to automatically stem terms
    • By date
  • Register (free) to Save search queries, records, or set up automatic Alerts. One search statement line is saved.
  • Selected Records -- Email, Print, Download.  Choose either Abstract or Detailed record. Can download to EndNote, text, RTF, etc
  • Engineering Village's new search engine: Summary of changes

 

 

IET and Elsevier Inspec Search Guides and Documentation