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Engineering Literature Review

This guide provides an overview of the engineering literature review and its place in a research project, thesis, or dissertation.

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Reminder: Online Access

  • Library resources require going through CWRU Single Sign-On.
  • The best method is to follow links from the library website.
  • When logged in and a browser window is not closed, access should continue from resource to resource.
  • Remember to close your browser when done.

Search for books and ebooks

Search for books and ebooks using:

Search for journals and ejournals

Search for other types of sources

Search for articles

Use periodical indexes and databases to locate articles. When in doubt which index or database to use, select an index that covers your subject area, as listed here:

When selecting appropriate databases for your topic, it is also important to know what kind of information you need: peer-reviewed articles, news, data, statistics, images, etc. Read index description, and select accordingly.

Once you have selected an index, proceed by entering keywords in the search box. Add synonyms, equivalent terms or variants. Combine these terms using Boolean operators (and, or, not), truncation, or wild card to best represent your topic.

The search will retrieve a list of citations to articles. 

Access to articles

Some articles may be readily available fulltext from the index you searched in.  Use LibKey Nomad browser extension that simplifies and streamlines access to the Kelvin Smith Library's subscription resources.

To access articles that are not available online, first the catalog to check whether we have it available in print in the library, and, if still not available, use the interlibrary loans service.