October 9, 2014

Step 1: Starting with your particular topic, for example: Polymer Composite Fibers
Using Google Search and searching for You may find web resources such as : Fibers in Polymer Composites

• The site provides mechanical properties of some common fibers used in polymer composites

Use Advanced search in Google for Polymer Composite Fibers to refine your search using various options.

• Limit by latest web resources using 'Last Update' field
• Limit by PDF in 'File Type' field
• Limit by .Gov domain (or. edu, or .org domains) to obtain quality web resources

You will find web resources like

• FIBER-REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITE MATERIAL SELECTION NASA report on material selection for design

• Browse through various resources that you think are useful for your project.

See

• Specific information needs for engineering design projects During the course of your design project, you may need references from manufacturer's product datasheets, application notes,  and whitepapers.

Step 2: Start using various electronic book collections and databases highlighted in Fundamentals of Engineering Library Guide:

• See Fundamentals of Engineering
  
  • ASM Handbooks
  • Ebrary Academic Complete Subscription Collection
  • ENGnetBASE
  • Knovel Academic Collection

• For example, searching in ENGnetBASE finds a chapter on Properties of Fibers and Yarns

• See Books 24x7 and Safari Tech Books for books on arduino robotics, computer science, software, database management, and operating systems, etc

• Encyclopedias:

  • AccessScience-McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
  • Comprehensive Composite Materials
  • Encyclopedia of Biomaterials and Biomedical engineering
  • Encyclopedia of Bioprocess Technology
  • Encyclopedia of Chemical physics and Physical Chemistry
  • Encyclopedia of Molecular Biology
  • Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering
  • Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology
  • Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology
  • Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology
  • Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry
  • Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
  • Wiley Encyclopedia of Molecular Medicine

Finding scholarly journal articles

• Try Summon to find books, articles and more. See also What is Summon? How can I use it? Click on Articles & More Tab in the Library Home page

• Searching in Engineering Village, finds a research paper like Cohesive zone model of carbon nanotube-coated carbon fiber/polyester composites from a journal titled 'Modelling and simulation in materials science and engineering'. This article was published in 2012.

Step 3. Patent Searching

• United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) The USPTO offers web access to bibliographic and full-text patent databases. These databases provide full-text of patents from 1976 to the present and full page images from 1790 to the present.

• See What is a Patent?

• See Anatomy of a U.S. patent

• See Patent Searching Tips.
  
• See Technology Commercialization at Drexel and  Patent Policy (Re: Intellectual Property).

• See 'Manual of Patent Classification'

• Fresh Patents Provides access to the latest published US patent applications each week BEFORE the USPTO decision to grant/deny.

• pat2pdf.org Given a patent number, pat2pdf.org will return a free, pdf formated version of the patent.

• The Google Patent Search covers the entire collection of patents made available by the USPTO--from patents issued in the 1790s to present.

Step 4: Statistical Resources

• Science.gov Science.gov searches over 40 databases and over 2000 selected websites, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information, including research and development results.

Step 5: Catalogs and Components

• ENGNETGLOBAL
• Google Product Search
• Globalspec: Engineering Search engine
• ThomasNet - a comprehensive resource for industrial information

Step 6: Citation Guidelines:

• IEEE Citation Reference