• Inspec (1896 to present).  Indexes journal articles and conference proceeding papers in the areas of electrical engineering, computer engineering, physics, optics, electronics, communications, control engineering, computing, manufacturing and production engineering, and information technology.  Combine with Compendex (20% overlap). Combine with PaperChem for pulp/paper topics.
• Compendex (1884 to present).  Indexes major journals and conference proceedings in most engineering disciplines. Combine Inspec and Compendex (include PaperChem for pulp/paper topics).
• "Select Database" -- Search Inspec and Compendex together (simultaneously). About 20% overlap between Inspec and Compendex.
• "Remove Duplicates" then choose Inspec at "Database Preferences" -- "Inspec"
• Compendex and Inspec search examples     http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~bw21/3ei.pdf
• Engineering Village "Help"
• Format for marked records (email, print, download). "Choose Format." Default is "Citation." Change to "Detailed record" Format.
• Books. To search Referex Engineering, Elsevier's searchable full text database of over 300 engineering books, click on "eBook Search" (top right). Do not search with Inspec/Compendex/PaperChem.  Search Referex Engineering alone, with "eBook Search."  NOTE:  This database currently only covers the publications years before 2008.
• Truncation (*) and Wild Cards.
• Truncation (*) and wild cards cannot be used within quotation marks or braces or used with the near or onear command.
• The asterisk (*) is the right and left hand truncation symbol.   Examples:  comput* returns computer, computerized, computation, computational, computability  ;  *sorption returns adsorption, absorption, desorption
• Use truncation (*) to search for words that begin with the same letters.
• Wild cards:     wom?n finds woman, women.         t??th finds tooth, teeth, truth, tenth.        h*emoglobin finds haemoglobin.
• Truncation can also be used to replace any number of characters internally.  sul*ate returns sulphate or sulfate
• Stemming.  Stemming allows retrieval of variants of a word using the word root as the stemming basis.
• Search terms are automatically stemmed in "Easy Search" and "Quick Search" except terms searched in the author field.  In Expert Search, stem terms using $-- $management returns managing, managed, manager, manage, managers, etc.
• Stemming can be used with the proximity operators if all of the terms are stemmed. For example, $electric ONEAR/0 $guitars will find "electric guitar" or "electric guitars" but might also find "electrical guitars."
• Autostemming "On" -- Stemming uses an algorithm that determines the suffixes of words and allows you to search for the term as entered, the root word and other words formed with other possible suffixes. Default is "On" for "Quick Search."
• Stemming will not find variants between British and American spellings.  Autostems all key words except for Author names and words in quotations and/or braces. Using truncation or wildcards will turn off the stemming feature.
• Phrases (" ") and Proximity (NEAR/# ONEAR/#)
• Phrases. Use quotation marks (" ") or braces for exact, word for word phrases, with no truncation or wild cards.  Examples:  "International Space Station"   {solar energy}  ;   International ONEAR/0 space ONEAR/0 station
• The NEAR/# and ONEAR/# commands do not work with truncation, wildcards, parenthesis, quotes or braces.
• Search for terms that are within 0-x terms of one another in any order: laser NEAR/4 diode.
• Search for terms that are within 0-x terms of one another and searched in the order entered: laser ONEAR/5 diode
• Search for terms that are near and within the same index:   (laser ONEAR/5 diode) wn TI
• Search for terms that are adjacent:   Space NEAR/0 stations
• If no number of words if specified, four is assumed:  laser NEAR diode is the same as laser NEAR/4 diode
• Truncation and stemming cannot be used within quotation marks or braces (phrases), but stemming can be used with the proximity operators if all of the terms are stemmed.  NEAR and ONEAR can be used with stemming.
• Fields.  Can restrict to field names.  "Search In"
• Title.  TI=
• Controlled Term is a thesaurus subject heading term.  CV=
• Controlled thesaurus terms and uncontrolled identifier subject terms differ in each database (Inspec and Compendex).
• Publication year coverage for controlled terms can vary for controlled terms.
• Uncontrolled Term is the Uncontrolled Identifier subject heading term selected by an indexer (not a thesaurus term).  FL=
• Example: (((model* or simulat* or algorithm*) WN TI) AND (("signal processing") WN CV)), 1980-2004
• Subject/Title/Abstract retrieves from Abstract, Title, Translated title, Ei and Inspec controlled terms, Ei main heading, and Uncontrolled terms.
• Limiting to "Document Type" will exclude records from Compendex added before 1985.  Each database offers unique "types" not available in the other database.
• Only Inspec "Treatment Types" (General Review, etc.) are current.  Compendex "Treatment Types" apply only to 1985 to 2008.
• Browse Indexes.  Author.  Search AU=(Clough). Spaces and commas are both important. The format for author name differs for each database.
• Inspec only uses initials for first names.  Compendex cites authors' names as they appear in the original document (either initials or full first name).
• Surnames can be followed either by a "space" or followed by a "comma."   Example: In "Expert Search," browse Author Index by both "Clough, G" and by "Clough G" or browse Author Index by both "Clough, W" and by "Clough W."
• Use the "Expert Search" screen for "Browse Indexes," such "Author" box. In Quick Search, if more than three terms are selected, the fourth term will overwrite the term in the third search box. In Expert Search, as many terms as needed can be selected.
• Author names can be truncated by using an asterisk (*) as the truncation symbol [such as Smith, A*]. Be aware that this strategy may lead to false hits because there are many authors with the same last name and first initial. Searching on Smith, A. B. will not retrieve articles with the author cited as Smith, A.
• Compendex "Author Affiliation" Field
• Prior to 2001, the official Compendex policy was to provide the institutional affiliation of the first author or editor. Since 2001, the affiliation of the Compendex corresponding author has been given instead (Compendex).
• Beginning March 16, 2009, for Compendex and PaperChem:  Multiple authors will be listed in the author affiliations field.  A corresponding author and email field will be added to the detailed record display. For those Compendex/PaperChem records with multiple author affiliations, the contact information of the lead author will appear.
• "Search History" "Combines Previous Searches" with Boolean logic operators "and" "or" "not."  Can add keyword search terms with item numbers (#).
• Example: #5 and ((simulat* or model*) wn CV).     Example: (#1 or #2) and #3.
• Only searches run in the same database, or combination of databases, are combinable.
• Duplicates. Click on "Remove Duplicates" then choose Inspec at "Database Preferences: Inspec" (Inspec has fewer record errors than does Compendex).  Duplicate records will be removed from the first 1000 records in the result set.  Inspec is the "database that you prefer to see results from."
• Journals.
• Can copy journal ISSN numbers to the Classic Catalog "Exact Search" screen, choosing ISSN (xxxx-xxxx).
• When the journal ISSN search is not successful, copy and paste the exact, left anchored journal name to the Classic Catalog "Exact Search" box and choose "Journal Title."  The Classic  Catalog contains separate records for electronic and print volumes. Note publication year coverage and title changes.  Electronic records may be listed before print Classic Catalog records.  A few Catalog records contain electronic and print holdings in the same record.  "Find It GT" works for most, but not all, journals.
• Conference Proceedings.    Please ask us for help!
• Use the Classic Catalog "Keyword Search" screen for conference proceedings and questionable journal names.  Remember that the words "and" "or" "not" are not allowed in a Classic Catalog "Keyword Search."  Try major conference name keywords first.
• Note "Journal/Source/Serial" field and "Conference Name/Monographic title" fields.
• Conferences can be cataloged in the Classic Catalog as either monographs (books, with an unique monographic title, a specific date and specific location) or as serials (similar to journals; all conferences listed in one "serial" record).
• "Find It GT" often will not work for conference proceedings/society papers, technical research reports or patents.  Even though owned by the Library, "Find It GT" may only list the option "ILLiad Interlibrary Loan."  The "Find It GT" Print "GT Catalog (GIL/Classic Catalog) GO" link may return "Not Available" or "Your search failed!" when the item is owned by the Library.  Ask us for help! Conference Proceedings Research Guide (including conference search hints). Society Papers Research Guide.
• ISSN problem. Many conference proceeding ISSN numbers will not work with "Find It GT," although the proceedings are in the Classic Catalog.  The Library may own all volumes of a particular conference proceedings in the Classic Catalog, but the Inspec, Compendex or other database "ISSN number" will not work in the Classic Catalog.
• IEEE and IEE/IET.
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) -- now Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).  If the keywords "IEEE" or "IEE" or "IET" are in the Inspec or Compendex "Journal/Source/Serial" field or in the Inspec or Compendex "Conference Name" field, search both IEEE Xplore ("Advanced Search" one word in each box, such as author last name and title keyword) and the Classic Catalog.
• Some IEEE and IEE/IET papers are not in IEEE Xplore, but are owned by the Library and are cataloged in the Classic Catalog.  Some joint and many pre-1988 IEEE/IEE/IET papers are not in IEEE Xplore, but are owned by the Library. IEEE Xplore uses Inspec abstracts. Logout when finished.
• Inspec/Compendex index a very large number and wide variety of Library owned electronic and print publications (such as ACM, SPIE, ASME, OSA, AIP, IOP, IPC, APS, MRS, SIAM, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, North Holland, Taylor and Francis, MIT Press, Pergamon Press, Kluwer, Academic Press, Chapman and Hall, and many others) not covered by IEEE Xplore
• "Find It GT".  "Find It GT" (located at the end of each record) works properly for most (but not all) "journal article" document types.  "Find It GT" links to electronic full text or to the Classic Catalog record.  Note that aggregator databases can have selective full text coverage and embargo date restrictions (ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Factiva, GaleGroup, Lexis Nexis, etc.).   "Find It GT" often will not work properly for conference proceedings/society papers, patents, or technical reports owned by the Library; the conference proceeding may be in the Classic Catalog even though "Find It GT" fails.
• Check journal title changes (Continues, Continued by, Spilt into) in the Classic Catalog.
• Spellings.  Remember British and American spellings of words and alternative spellings, and spell out acronyms and abbreviations (fiber/fibre, modelled/modeled, AGV/automated guided vehicle*).
• Session expiration.   Your session will expire after 20 continuous minutes of inactivity.  Mark and send records to email or save in a file.
• DOI.  "Detailed record" format only. Try copying and pasting the "DOI:" number (such as 10.1117/12.754566) into the eJournals "Have a ...DOI you'd like to find? Try the Citation Linker" -- "DOI" blank box, for electronic subscription collections such as IEEE Explore, SPIE, AIAA, ScienceDirect, PROLA or SPIN.
• Mark your records and E-mail, Print or Download them. Remember to change "Choose format" from the default "Citation" to "Detailed record."
• Fast searches in Inspec and Compendex for a few papers on a topic: Limit By (drop down menus) (1) "Journal article" (Document Type) -- Find It GT works properly for most journal papers, but often does not work for conference papers; (2) only Inspec "Treatment Types" ("General Review" etc.) are current; Compendex "Treatment Types" apply only to 1985 to 2008.; (3) "English" (Language); (4) recent date.  Add synonyms to your search strategy by checking: Title, Abstract, Subject Heading fields; thesauri (online); bibliographies/references at the end of similar papers and footnotes.
• Select range.  You can add up to 400 records in "Select range" before choosing to e-mail or download.   "Choose format" email, print, or download selected records. Check "Clear Selected Records" on new search.  Choose "Detailed record" under "Change format." Only 5,000 results can be retrieved from any search.
• Stop words.   Place the phrase within braces or quotation marks. {block and tackle} "water craft parts and equipment"  {near earth objects}
• Thesaurus.  Use "Exact Term" if you know a controlled vocabulary term and want go directly to its thesaurus entry which contains broader, narrower and related terms as well as scope notes, prior terms and lead-in terms
• "Limit By." Publication Year.  Earliest possible publication date is 1896/1884.  Reverts to default date for each new search.
• "Quick Search" and "Expert Search" screens are available..
• Post Search results can be sorted by date (publication year), relevance, author or source.
• Saved searches.  Up to 125 saved searches are available.  Only one search statement line is saved.  Search History then Save.  You can save up to 50 records within each personal folder (3 folders)..
• Alerts.  Create up to 125 weekly E-mail Alerts from the Search History. Up to 25 records are sent within an e-mail alert. If more records were retrieved from the weekly update, a hyperlink appears in the body of the e-mail alert linking you to the Engineering Village 2.  One line alerts.
• "Refine Search" keeps current settings.  "New Search" erases all settings and return to defaults.
• Classic Catalog slide class presentation examples, using Inspec and Compendex field information  http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~bw21/2gil.pdf
• Classic Catalog search hints  http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~bw21/gilei.htm

Classic Catalog Search Examples
Classic Catalog Search Hints
Database Commands Comparison Chart

Information for Distance Learners  Document delivery: Georgia Tech Savannah, Center for Distance Learning, GT Lorraine

Georgia Tech Library mobile site

Library Services, Search Hints and Database Guides for ECE
ECE Research Guide
Library Services, Search Hints and Database Guides for GTRI
GTRI Research Guide
Technical Reports Research Guide

Library Home Page
Classic Catalog
GT Catalog
All Library Databases
All Library Research Guides