Literature Search Primer Leo Kempel College of Engineering Michigan State University

Literature Search PrimerLeo Kempel

College of Engineering

Michigan State University

ObservationThere are a lot of smart people out there, as smartor smarter than I am (you are), the key to success is to work harder than them!!! – John Volakis, my advisor.

Outline

• Motivation

• The easy stuff… web-resources

• More advanced searching… Old School

• Doing it right…

• Closing the loop… Making your work pay-off

Why do a literature search?

“Pigmaei gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident”-- Wikipedia (first attributed to Bernard of Chartes)

Some Web ResourcesWe are Generation Whatever… we use

technology minute by minute…• www.google.com: We all know this one…• www.googlescholar.com: Specialized!• www.dtic.mil: US DoD Reports• http://ntrs.nasa.gov: NASA Tech Reports• http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu: Example of

a University database

http://www.google.com/

http://www.googlescholar.com/

http://www.dtic.mil/

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/

• www.lib.msu.edu: Portal for all MSU Libraries services and listings

• http://er.lib.msu.edu: Electronic Holdings– Engineering– Mathematics– Physics– Chemistry– Biology… and many more useful subjects

MSU Library Electronic Resources

http://www.lib.msu.edu/

http://er.lib.msu.edu/

MSU Library Holdings and Beyond

• Check out the Engineering Library for archival articles and books

• Other branch libraries– Mathematics (Wells Hall)– Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS

Building)– Main Library – Government Documents

Doing it right… Follow the idea trail

Making it Payoff…

• Giving your advisor a pile of papers, books, etc. does little good.

• Make a synopsis of what the papers say, why they impact the project.

• AND make a electronic file folder of papers, etc…

Example

• “Patch antennas on ferromagnetic substrates,” Brown, A.D.; Volakis, J.L.; Kempel, L.C.; Botros, Y.; Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on, Volume 47, Issue 1, Jan. 1999 Page(s):26 - 32.– This paper investigates the radiation and scattering

performance of a patch resonator printed on a ferrimagnetic substrate (specifically, Yttrium Iron Garnet – YIG). The novel contribution is the simulation of non-uniform static magnetic bias field effects on the antenna’s performance.

– Filename: Brown_TAP_Jan99

Summary

• By all means, utilize technology to simplify learning what has been done in the past

• Go to the library, get books, read them• Make a synopsis of what the literature

says• Find a niche that YOU can contribute…

then “Just Do It”

Questions?