Research Librarian
Tips for getting started
Because Human Factors draws on a number of disciplines, relevant scholarly articles and conference proceedings can be found in either general databases/indexes that cross disciplines, or in ones specific to the area of interest. So for human factors in computers, use computer science databases; for human factors in medical devices, use medical databases, etc..
Some useful general and discipline-specific databases/indexes are listed in the box below. To learn more about resources in a discipline, look for a library guide for that discipline:
Finding scholarly articles and conference proceedings
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowA good starting point. Indexes top scholarly journals and other publications across a wide range of subjects, including physical sciences, engineering, and social sciences. Allows discovery of related articles by following citations.
- SCOPUS This link opens in a new windowScopus is a large abstract and citation database that includes peer-reviewed titles from international publishers, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and web sources. Subject coverage : Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Engineering ; Life and Health Sciences ; Social Sciences, Psychology and Economics ; Biological, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowIndexes a wide range of scholarly resources using the familiar Google interface. In the settings in Google Scholar you can enter "Tufts" in the Library Links section to activate "Get This Item at Tufts" links to access the full-text of articles.
- Engineering Village This link opens in a new windowContains articles, conference proceedings, and research from a variety of engineering disciplines.
- Ergonomics Abstracts This link opens in a new windowArticles, book chapters, and conference proceedings specifically focused on ergonomics.
- ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new windowA good starting point for human factors in computing. Contains journals and conference proceedings published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the premier publisher in computer science. Use the "Expand your search..." option to see results from non-ACM publications.
- IEEE Xplore digital library This link opens in a new windowIEEE publishes conference proceedings, articles, and standards in electrical, computer, and software engineering, as well as biotechnology, telecommunications, power and energy, and more.
- PubMed@Tufts This link opens in a new windowContains journal articles, clinical trials, and research abstracts on biomedical topics. Primarily focused on medicine, nursing, and health sciences.
- PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowCovers the scholarly literature in the broad field of psychology.
Learn about scholarly writing and publishing in STEM
Research papers in STEM follow specific formats, and are produced, edited, and peer-reviewed using specific procedures. Whether you are writing and submitting papers yourself, or simply searching for and reading them, understanding these formats and procedures is important. A good way to learn about the process of creating research papers is by taking this online class from Nature Masterclasses.
- Nature Masterclasses - Scientific Writing and PublishingLearn how research papers are created with this 11-hour online course on writing and publishing a paper, presented by editors from Nature journals. Pick "Tufts" as your institution and use your Tufts credentials for access. The course is asynchronous, so you can complete it at your own pace