Engineering: Senior Project and Thesis Toolkit

Full text: Access to the full text is immediately available on screen as HTML or an Acrobat PDF file, usually by clicking on a link or an icon.  Note: some databases are not inherently full text but appear to be because they provide quick links to the full text in other resources.

Index: Listings of published articles, books and other resources, usually arranged around a particular subject and often adhering to a particular taxonomy or classification system.  May include complete citation information but not full text or abstracts.

Abstract: A brief description or summary of an article.  Does not include full text but may offer complete citation information.

Note: some databases are hybrids.  The medical literature database, PubMed, for example, is primarily a citation database but does provide journal abstracts as well as links to full text where freely available and direct links to full text in its PubMed Central repository.

Before you start working with index and articles databases, you may find it helpful to map out a research strategy, using the Search Strategy Worksheet provided here.  Use it to define your major search terms and their synonyms as well as the Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) used to connect these terms. 

Example:
("Remote Control OR Telecontrol") AND ("Laser Surgery" OR "Medical Robotics")

When conducting research it is important to distinguish between journal articles and magazine articles. Journal articles are typically referred to as "scholarly," while magazine articles are usually considered "popular".

Criteria	Scholarly Journal	Popular Magazine
Example
Content	In-depth, primary account of original findings written by the researcher(s); very specific information, with the goal of scholarly communication.	Secondary discussion of someone else's research; may include personal narrative or opinion; general information, purpose is to entertain or inform.
Author	Author's credentials are provided; usually a scholar or specialist with subject expertise.	Author is frequently a journalist paid to write articles, may or may not have subject expertise.
Audience	Scholars, researchers, and students.	General public; the interested non-specialist.
Language	Specialized terminology or jargon of the field; requires expertise in subject area.	Vocabulary in general usage; easily understandable to most readers.
Graphics	Graphs, charts, and tables; very few advertisements and photographs.	Graphs, charts and tables; lots of glossy advertisements and photographs.
Layout & Organization	Structured; includes the article abstract, goals and objectives, methodology, results (evidence), discussion, conclusion, and bibliography.	Informal; may include non-standard formatting. May not present supporting evidence or a conclusion.
Accountability	Articles are evaluated by peer-reviewers* or referees who are experts in the field; edited for content, format, and style.	Articles are evaluated by editorial staff, not experts in the field; edited for format and style.
References	Required. Quotes and facts are verifiable.	Rare. Little, if any, information about source materials is given.
Other Examples	Annals of Mathematics, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, History of Education Quarterly, Almost anything with Journal in the title.	Time, Newsweek, The Nation, The Economist

This is a modified version of a document created by Amy VanScoy at NCSU Libraries.