MECH 548 Cellular Materials in Natural and Engineered Structures

Best bets

• Compendex (Engineering Village)
  Covers all aspects of engineering. Check out the short video below on the basics of searching Compendex
• Scopus
  Multidisciplinary database. Covers engineering and biomedical topics well. Useful to see who has cited an article of interest on your topic
• ProQuest SciTech Premium Collection
  Covers literature in the natural sciences, engineering and technology

Additional databases

• ABI/Inform Global
  Comprehensive business database
• MEDLINE
  Premier source for biomedical literature
• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
  doctoral dissertations and master's theses from participating universities in North America, Europe and around the world
• ProQuest Materials Science & Engineering Collection
  covers literature in materials science, metallurgy, ceramics, polymers and composites used in engineering applications
• Web of Science
  Multidisciplinary database. Useful to see who has cited an article of interest on your topic

Most of the Library's licensed electronic resources, such as databases, full-text online journals and ebooks, are restricted to McGill students and staff. Find out about accessing the Library's online resources from on and off campus.

Interlibrary loan

• Interlibrary Loan
  All McGill students and staff may order materials not available at McGill using Interlibrary Loan.

How to find articles and conference papers

Use research databases to find journal articles and conference papers on your topic. For example:

• Access Compendex.
• Search for: "trabecular bone" AND lattice
• Find the article by Miller, Zev and Fuchs, Moshe:
  • "Effect of trabecular curvature on the stiffness of trabecular bone" Journal of Biomechanics. v. 38 no. 9, Sept. 2005, pp. 1855-1864
• Click on its title; read the abstract. [Clicking on the Main heading, Controlled terms, and Uncontrolled terms links will give you more articles about those subjects.]
• Click on the red McGill "Find Full Text" or the blue "Full text" link to search for the article online.
• If you are not offered the article full-text, then search the library catalogue using the article title and if not successful, using the journal title. If the library does not subscribe to the journal, then get it on Interlibrary Loan (ILL). There are no charges for ILL; McGill subsidizes this service.

Search tips

Ways to decrease results

• Search words as a phrase

  e.g. "trabecular bone" AND "lattice materials"

• Add additional terms and combine with AND

  e.g. trabecular bone AND lattice materials AND regeneration

• Select one or more of the database's limit types

  e.g. publication type, language, publication date

• Search for words only in a particular field

  e.g. trabecular in title only

Ways to increase results

• Search using fewer terms

  e.g. "trabecular bone"

• Remove quotations around search terms

  e.g. trabecular bone

• Use truncation to allow the terms to end in various ways

  e.g. trabecula* AND bone* AND material*

• Use synonyms or similar concepts, combining them with OR to generate more results

  e.g. trabecular AND (bone OR tissue) AND (lattice* OR crystal*)

Get new ideas for search terms

• Use descriptors in the database (also called subjects, controlled vocabulary or controlled terms). In Compendex, you can find these terms by searching your keywords in the Thesaurus under the Search tab or by applying the limit type: "Controlled vocabulary" on the left-hand side of your search results list.

• McGill users only
• Open access resource
• Free resource
• In-library use
• Catalogue record

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