GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
CEE 8813 Materials Science of Concrete
Some Useful Resources for Searching Academic Literature
Searching Databases
Georgia Tech subscribes to a number of databases that catalog papers published in archival
journals. To access the databases from the Georgia Tech library home page
(www.library.gatech.edu), under the “Search and Locate” tab, highlight and click “Search the
Databases”. This should lead to a new screen offering a search of the databases, an alphabetical
list of the databases, or a list of databases by subject (i.e., “engineering”, “civil
engineering”).
On that screen, it is often best to use the search function to link to one of these databases:
“Web of Science” or “ISI Citation Databases” - quite comprehensive in most fields,
listing citations from mid-20th century in most fields; provides some links to actual
articles; can view number of citations for each article.
“Current Contents” - contains citations from journals since 1992.
“PapersFirst” – contains citations from conference proceedings (including ACI
special publications) since 1993.
Once a database has been selected, you’ll be prompted to give your gtID (NNXX) and password.
Web of Science can be searched to locate articles (by author, title, etc.); they are also useful to
determining a journals citation index (a measure of how widely read it is) and for tracking the
frequency of article citations. After clicking “Web of Science” on the initial home page for ISI,
clicking on the “general search” tab will lead to a search tool which is most useful for typical
literature searches. The “cited ref” search is also useful for determining, for example, which
articles are most often cited on a particular topic
Current Contents can be searched for a number of parameters, including keywords, author name,
author exact name, complete title, title keywords, etc. Connectors “and”, “or”, and “not” can also
be used to refine the search.
PapersFirst searches may be performed by keyword, author, or title.
Electronic Journals
Most archival journals now publish on-line, and Georgia Tech has subscriptions to many of these
journals. To access them from the library home page, under “Search and Locate” highlight and
click “Journals”. On the newly opened page, toward the bottom, click “browse the electronic
journals”.
The E-journals that the library subscribes to may be located by typing the journal title into the
search feature. When the exact journal title is not known, journals may be located by the first
letter in the journal title (e.g. C for Cement and Concrete Research) or by searching according to
a keyword in the journal name.
When performing a detailed review, it is often simplest, however, to collect a list of articles of
interest; the library web page is set up to email this “marked list” to you. With this list, each
journal can be accessed directly using the alphabetic listing on “Journals” page. After locating a
citation in the databases, the article may be found online in PDF format, if Georgia Tech
subscribes to that electronic journal. If the article is not found electronically, a paper version may
be found in the library stacks. Search the catalog for the journal name to find the location in the
stacks.
Of particular interest are the number of Elsevier journals that can be searched on-line. Clicking
on any Elsevier journal, such as Cement and Concrete Research, will eventually lead to a list of
all of the recent issues of that journal available on line. This page also contains a “Search” button
which will bring up a site for searching all of the Elsevier journals available online, many with
full-text articles available. Elsevier journals have also started publishing “uncorrected proofs”,
which are the near-final versions of papers, but prior to publication. By doing this, we have
access to the most recent research in a particular area. However, it is worth noting that because
these are not final versions of the papers, some errors may exist.
Additionally, while the library subscribes to electronic version of ACI Materials Journal and ACI
Structures Journal, you may also find it useful to establish a student ACI account at www.aci-
int.org. Students receive free online access to ACI’s electronic resources.
Standards Online
ASTM standards can be searched and downloaded by Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff.
From the library homepage, under “Search and Locate” highlight and click “Standards and
Codes”.
A new window should open listing the resources available. Under “Standards and Codes”, for
instance, click “Standards at Tech” to get access to ASTM and other standards. You may be
asked to enter a valid GaTech ID and password.
In “Standards”, you can search by document number and organization (e.g.,ASTM C116) or
keywords (“fiber reinforced concrete”).
Remember to logout when finished, as the Institute holds only a couple licenses for some of the
standards, including ASTM standards. If all standards are in use, you may not be able to access
them until someone logs out.