LibGuides: Engineering, Electronics, Materials science and Mathematics: Journals

Finding articles on a particular subject

In many cases, you can find journal articles using Library Search. But there is a huge range of specialist databases which provide more sophisticated searches for journal articles in many different engineering disciplines.

Most of these databases will include similar material alongside journal articles, most commonly trade papers or conference proceedings.

Depending on your course or assignment, you may find several sets of journal databases useful: so, for example, if you are doing automotive engineering, as well as the dedicated Automotive engineering databases, at different stages of your course you might find the some of databases for All courses, Mechanical and manufacturing engineering, Materials science, and Design engineering useful. You can use the menu on this page to navigate to the suitable databases for your course.

Journals for all courses

These are enormous, general-purpose science and technology databases, suitable for all courses in engineering. They also all offer citation searching to make it easier to find more relevant articles..

SCOPUS This link opens in a new window
Huge science, technology and social sciences database.
Results can sometimes look irrelevant at first, as Scopus is unusual in arranging results by date of publication as default rather than relevance to the search terms. But there is an option to sort by relevance in the top right-hand corner above the results.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Huge science, technology and social sciences database. Leans slightly more towards life sciences, but still contains lots of relevant articles.
Dimensions This link opens in a new window
A large science and technology database; alongside journal articles, it has many features to help researchers find information about research projects and opportunities.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search engine for journal articles, reports and other academic sources. Searches a massive range of sources, but the basic interface makes it harder than the other database to refine your search if you find too many results.
Be aware that Google scholar will find results from sources that SHU does not subscribe to so you may not automatically be able to get full text online. You can take advantage of the SHU subscriptions by going to Scholar Preferences and adding Sheffield Hallam University when prompted for a library name. This will add a SHU Links link to your Google Scholar searches which will identify what you can get via SHU subscriptions. However, we still advise that you access Google Scholar via Library Gateway as this will give you access to the full range of subscribed resources.

Journals for mechanical and manufacturing engineering

Photo credit: 'Rusted Engine' by hyperlux via morgueFile

Engineering index This link opens in a new window
Articles on mechanical, design and manufacturing engineering, particularly automotive, sport and UK engineering.
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Articles on computing and electronics, including many articles on CAD, mathematical modelling, mechanical engineering and manufacturing processes.
IEEE Xplore
In the database IEEE Xplore there are now over 3.8 million articles on computing related topics. There are thousands of early access articles that you can only find by searching IEEE Xplore (not by searching through Google Scholar or Library Search).

Journals for electronics, electrical engineering, networks and telecommunications

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Usually the first stop for research in electronics and electrical engineering. A huge collection of journals, conference proceedings and standards from the IEEE and IET.
IEEE Xplore
In the database IEEE Xplore there are now over 3.8 million articles on computing related topics. There are thousands of early access articles that you can only find by searching IEEE Xplore (not by searching through Google Scholar or Library Search).
ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Focuses on the computing and network engineering side of electronics. Journals and conference proceedings from the ACM.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Huge business database, including many articles on IT and network management. In some cases, the most recent issues of a journal might not be available.
alternative link
Solid State and Superconductivity Abstracts (Full archive) This link opens in a new window
Articles on solid state devices and superconductors.
Covering topics such as phase; crystal; mechanical properties of solids; optical and dielectric properties; conductive and magnetic properties; exotic electronic structure and energy gaps; impurity effects; flux structures and critical current; ceramics and twinning phenomena.

Journals for materials science

There are several journal databases for materials, each focusing on a different type of material or aspect of material science. However, most of them use the same interface and work in a similar way.

METADEX This link opens in a new window
Articles on metals, alloys and metallurgy.
As a Proquest database, it allows cross-searching with other Proquest databases and easy export of resources to Refworks.
Engineered Materials Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Articles on polymers, ceramics, composites and coatings.
As a Proquest database, it allows cross-searching with other Proquest databases and easy export of resources to Refworks.
Materials Business File This link opens in a new window
Trade papers for the materials, manufacturing and processing industries.
As a Proquest database, it allows cross-searching with other Proquest databases and easy export of resources to Refworks.
Corrosion Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Articles on corrosion, corrosion prevention and testing for corrosion.
Corrosion Abstracts provides the world's most complete source of bibliographic information in the area of corrosion science and engineering. International sources of literature are scanned and abstracted in the areas of general corrosion, testing, corrosion characteristics, preventive measures, materials construction and performance, and equipment for many industries.
Aluminium Industry Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Articles on aluminium.
Copper Technical Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Articles on copper.
As a Proquest database, it allows cross-searching with other Proquest databases and easy export of resources to Refworks
ASTM Compass This link opens in a new window
Peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings about materials science and testing, as well as standards.
SciFinder This link opens in a new window
Chemistry database, with useful and unusual features letting you search for articles by the chemicals and reactions involved. Also includes information about properties and preparation of substances in the articles where available. Please note that you will need to register to use this database: this is free and straightforward.

Journals for mathematics

There are several journal databases which are not dedicated solely to mathematics, but which contain a very large number of articles on mathematics amongst other subjects. Please see the Journals for all courses box on this page for more information.

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Articles on all aspects of computing, including many articles on mathematical models and algorithms.
IEEE Xplore
In the database IEEE Xplore there are now over 3.8 million articles on computing related topics. There are thousands of early access articles that you can only find by searching IEEE Xplore (not by searching through Google Scholar or Library Search).

ArXiv
' ePrint' pre-print articles (open access, early-stage articles yet to be published in a journal). Articles will typically not have been peer-reviewed at this point, but you can get to read new articles before they appear in a journal.

Journals for design engineering

Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI) This link opens in a new window
Articles on design, including industrial and product design

Journals for railway engineering

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Huge electronics database, including many articles on wiring, signals, train detection, and motors for locomotives.
IEEE Xplore
In the database IEEE Xplore there are now over 3.8 million articles on computing related topics. There are thousands of early access articles that you can only find by searching IEEE Xplore (not by searching through Google Scholar or Library Search).
Engineering index This link opens in a new window
Articles on mechanical engineering, with a focus on transport engineering and the UK
METADEX This link opens in a new window
Metallurgy database, useful for articles on rail/wheel wear
As a Proquest database, it allows cross-searching with other Proquest databases and easy export of resources to Refworks.

Journals for automotive engineering

SAE Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Articles- known as 'technical papers'- on automotive, manufacturing, aerospace and materials engineering.
Technical papers are peer-reviewed research papers similar to journal articles: however, they are usually available individually, rather than being published as part of a journal. Each paper will be assigned a SAE Number to help identify it. The articles for SAE's journals are drawn from this pool of technical papers, and hence can be found in this collection.
If you use any filters or re-sort the results, you will need to click on the 'Refresh Results' link or symbol to apply the filter or re-sort.
Other SAE material, particularly standards and older articles, can be found through this database but may not be available through our subscription. Please contact the library if you want help to try and obtain these.
Engineering index This link opens in a new window
Articles on automotive engineering

Journals for aerospace engineering

Currently the only AIAA journal we subscribe to is Journal of Aircraft. However, you can obtain articles from the other AIAA journals for free within a couple of days via the document supply service. The first two databases both index the AIAA journals, so that you can find articles from them.

Aerospace & High Technology Database This link opens in a new window
Articles on aerospace.

ARC- Aerospace Research Central
Full-text searching of AIAA journals and conference proceedings. Please note that in most cases you will need to request the material through document supply.

SAE Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Articles- known as 'technical papers'- on aerospace and engines.
Technical papers are peer-reviewed research papers similar to journal articles: however, they are usually available individually, rather than being published as part of a journal. Each paper will be assigned a SAE Number to help identify it. The articles for SAE's journals are drawn from this pool of technical papers, and hence can be found in this collection.
If you use any filters or re-sort the results, you will need to click on the 'Refresh Results' link or symbol to apply the filter or re-sort.
Other SAE material, particularly standards and older articles, can be found through this database but may not be available through our subscription. Please contact the library if you want help to try and obtain these.

Journals for food engineering

Food Science and Technology Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Articles on food technology and processing.
All major food commodities plus biotechnology, microbiology, food safety, additives, nutrition, packaging and pet foods. Cross search available with all EBSCO databases, select Choose Databases and tick those you wish to add to your search.

Civil engineering

Civil Engineering Database This link opens in a new window
Search interface for material from American Society of Civil Engineers. In some cases, it may not be possible to link directly from the database and you need to copy the entry into Library Search or Google Scholar to access it.
Please note CEDB does not provide access to the full text of articles or support SHUlinks, so you need to use it alongside Library Search to access items.

Journals for physics

IOP Journals (IOP) This link opens in a new window
Articles published by the Institute of Physics.
It is possible to search the content, and read the full text, of the journals online: a full-text online archive of older IOP material, going back to 1873, is also available.
PROLA - Physical Review Online Archive This link opens in a new window
Articles published by the American Physical Society.

ArXiv
' ePrint' pre-print articles (open access, early-stage articles yet to be published in a journal). Articles will typically not have been peer-reviewed at this point, but you can get to read new articles before they appear in a journal.

Journals for medical technology & sport engineering

This is a big topic, and you can also find useful resources in other subject guides, such as Nursing and Midwifery, Biosciences and Chemistry, and Health.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
A colossal database of articles on health, including medical imaging, biomechanics and medical devices.
PubMed is a search tool to access citations, abstracts and links to full-text journals at web sites of participating publishers. Including over 15 million citations from journals and covers 4,800 biomedical science journals.
SPORTDiscus This link opens in a new window
Articles on sport, sport equipment and biomechanics.
It has over 1,500,000 records, including journal articles, books, dissertations and theses. In some cases coverage goes back to 1939.
An increasing percentage of the material is full text.
Cross search available with all EBSCO databases, select Choose Databases and tick those you wish to add to your search.

Journals for management, logistics and operations

Photo credit: 'Foundry' by matei via morgueFile

Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Huge business database, including engineering and project management. In some cases, the most recent issues of a journal may not be available.
Emerald Insight This link opens in a new window
Business database, good for logistics and supply chains

Journals for the environment & health and safety

ProQuest Environmental sciences This link opens in a new window
Articles on pollution and the environment
Health and Safety Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Articles on health and safety.
As a Proquest database, it allows cross-searching with other Proquest databases and easy export of resources to Refworks.

Keeping up to date with the latest issues of journals: Browzine

As well as directly searching for specific subjects, there are also tools which will let you browse through journals and keep up to date with the contents of new issues of key titles.

What to do if a journal article is not available in the Library

If we don't have a journal article or conference proceeding in stock, we can ask another library to email a copy to you via our Document Supply Service. While it may not be possible to get absolutely everything, the vast majority of articles can be obtained this way.

Document Supply Services