LibGuides: Physics: Conferences

About Conference Papers

What?

Conferences papers are the papers presented at a conference, meetings, symposia, etc. by individual speakers.

Proceedings are the collection of conference papers that are published by the organizing institution of the conference or via a publisher. They are distributed as printed books, on CDs, or made available on the Web. Proceedings may include whole papers or just the abstracts.

Search Proceedings Online

Google Scholar

arXiv -- provides access to e-prints in physics, mathematics, and computer science

Finding Proceedings and Conference Papers

Locating conference proceedings can be complicated because of variations in:

publication title
publication type (separate, one-time publications, serials, or as special issues in journals)
content (abstracts, extended abstracts, or complete papers)
publication date (some proceedings may be published long after the actual conference date)
sponsoring associations' name

Try several approaches and don't hesitate to ask a librarian for help.

Search for conference proceedings in:

The Carnegie Mellon library catalog
Databases
Online (individual or institutional websites)

Databases

General Search

ProceedingsFirst

Covering a broad range of subjects, this database is an index to every worldwide published congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop and meeting that is included in OCLC. Every record inludes a list of the papers presented at each conference.

The extended search fields list makes this database the best way to search for proceedings.

Specialized Search

Most professional organizations offer access to their sponsored conferences.

ACM Digital Library

ACS Publications

ASCE Online Research Library

Compendex and Inspec, via Engineering Village

IEEE Xplore

MRS Online Proceedings

Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society

SAE Publications & Standards