Engineering and Public Policy: 19-437: Global Ecological Issues & Controversies: Use libraries and conduct an effective search

Web of Science

A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the literature of the sciences, social sciences and the arts & humanities providing indexes and links to cited references for each article.

Scopus

Academic database covering peer-reviewed journals, book series, and conference proceedings - includes scientific, medical, technical and social science topics, with emphasis on citation analysis. Scival feature requires registration but is free to CMU affiliates.

Other databases

Many more databases available through CMU library's catalog

Web of Science Tips 

- Citation Network and Related Articles

- Web of Science Tutorials 

- Search Query Rules and Field Tags

- Effective Searching 

- Getting Resources from the Library - things we don't have

- Cited Reference Searching - Web of Science 

- CMU library's home page

1. Divide topic into general concepts

Example: In the question, "How power plants affect the ecosystem in Pittsburgh?" the concepts are: ecosystem, power plants, and Pittsburgh. 

2. Think of synonyms and related terms

Example: Related terms of "power plant" can be "electricity generation" and "power station"

3. Use Boolean search method (search by combining your keywords using and, or, not)

• Double quotes are used to combine words into a single search term.

• The AND/OR/NOT keyword is used for logical AND/OR/NOT.

Example: "Ecosystem" AND "power plant"

1.Click the Get it @ CMU links whenever you see them

2. Click "Article" on the page directed

3. Click "Download PDF" to download the full article

Articles we don't have

If you need materials that CMU doesn't have, there are two services that can help. ILLiad is a full-service option: we search for the item and get it to you. E-Z Borrow is a self-service option (for books only): you search for the item and we get it to you. These services are provided at no cost to you.

Connect off-campus

Current CMU students, faculty, and staff have access to electronic library materials from off campus. All other users must be on campus and request temporary computer access to use electronic materials.

Make sure you use E-Z proxy or VPN when you are off-campus

Ask a librarian for help

Chat with us, send us an email, call us, text us.

Julie Chen 

Contact Info
Julie Chen, Librarian
Sorrells Engineering & Science Library, Wean Hall
412-268-6116