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Inspec Research Guide: Home

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

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Contact your Subject Librarian for expert quick and in-depth reference and search assistance (with GT courses, GT dissertation/theses/project research, etc.).

Full Text

For journal articles, clicking on "Find It @ GT" works properly for most, but not all, journal papers. Links to either the electronic full text or to the Library Catalog record

For conference papers, technical reports and other formats, "Find It @ GT" often does not work properly. If "Find @ GT" does not work, check the Library Catalog. The Georgia Tech Library owns a very large number of conference papers and technical reports that cannot be retrieved by clicking on the full text icon. Most technical reports owned by the Library are not in the Catalog.

If the journal or conference paper is not available electronically, either through a Georgia Tech Library subscription or through a free website, fill out an ILLiad document delivery photocopy (PDF) request form at http://illiad.library.gatech.edu/ . This applies to materials owned by the Library and also to materials owned by other libraries (obtained through interlibrary loan).

Search Inspec/Compendex by keyword/author and use IEEE Xplore for document delivery. IEEE Xplore uses Inspec abstracts and subject headings.

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"

Add the PaperChem database for pulp and paper science technology. 

Inspec Database Description

Inspec Database, 1896 to present

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.

The five main subject areas covered are physics; electrical engineering and electronics; computers and control; information technology for business; and mechanical and production engineering.

Weekly email alerts can be set-up.

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) ; onear/# (within # words, in this exact 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.

 

 

IET and Elsevier Inspec Search Guides and Documentation