Scholarly, Professional, Popular?
Evaluating Sources
What kind of information do you need? If you are writing for a class assignment, you may be required to use peer-reviewed ("refereed") or scholarly sources. In any case, you should always look for sources that are authoritative. For more detailed help with evaluating your sources, see the Evaluating Sources tab.
Scholarly Checklist--Look for:
- Authors listed, with credentials
- Cited references and data, observations, or statistics to support conclusions
- Reviewed by peers or experts in the subject
- Purpose is to inform or impart knowledge, not to sell, persuade, entertain
- Appears impartial--few or no advertisements, no emotional language, unbiased
Authoritative--A source can have authority even if it isn't scholarly.
- Author and/or publisher is an expert on the subject
- Author's affiliations and contact information are available
Other Criteria-- these are not definitive, but worthy of consideration:
- Do you see errors in spelling, grammar, data?
- Is the publication in turn cited by other credible works published later?
- How current is the information (no date? be suspicious)?
Core Electronic Resources
- Library Catalog - Colorado School of Mines This link opens in a new window
Search the library's catalog for physical and electronic resources to find books, articles, maps, videos, and more. - SciTech Premium Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
The SciTech Premium Collection provides full-text coverage for all the sciences, engineering, forestry, geography, homeland security and terrorism, International relations, mathematics, military and defense, public health and safety, and sustainability. - GreenFILE (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
GreenFILE offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. - Applied Science and Technology Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Applied Science & Technology Full Text contains indexing and abstracts for scientific and technical publications back to 1983. Content includes coverage of a wide variety of applied science specialties—acoustics to aeronautics, neural networks to nuclear and civil engineering, computers and informatics, and much more. - IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
The IEEE Xplore digital library features content from IEEE as well as the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), containing current literature in electrical engineering, communications, and computer science with select content back to 1872. Select access to standards. - Engineering Village This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Engineering Village is the information discovery platform to search across both Compendex and INSPEC databases. The thesauri on Engineering Village comprise the controlled vocabulary used to index articles in the Compendex, Inspec, GeoRef, GEOBASE and EnCompass databases. - ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
From foundational science to new and novel research, discover our large collection of Physical Sciences and Engineering publications, covering a range of disciplines, from the theoretical to the applied. - ASCE Civil Engineering Database This link opens in a new window
This database provides a simple search interface for all ASCE publications. It provides bibliographic access to all of the ASCE journals, conference proceedings, books, standards, manuals, magazines, and newsletters. - ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Abstracting and indexing of all government publications with full text for Congressional Hearings 1824 to present. Plus bill tracking and legislative histories, member profiles, research, and CIS index.
Related & Multidisciplinary Resources
- Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
This database provides editorially-curated A&I resources drawn from the world's literature on meteorology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry and physics, astrophysics, hydrology, glaciology, physical oceanography, and environmental sciences - OSTI: Office of Scientific and Technical Information This link opens in a new window
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information provides comprehensive access to the results of DOE research and development investments. OSTI is implementing public access to the peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from DOE R&D funding. - MCEER Publications Catalog This link opens in a new window
MCEER Publications Catalog contains most MCEER/NCEER publications. Research focuses on earthquakes, earthquake engineering, natural hazard mitigation, and related topics. Additional features include records for various publication types, such as books, journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, CDs, slides, and videos. - TRID: The TRIS and ITRD Database This link opens in a new window
TRID is an integrated database that combines the records from TRB’s Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD’s Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to more than one million records of transportation research worldwide. - Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
The Materials Science & Engineering Database includes the renowned METADEX, Copper and Polymer Library databases and provides full-text titles from around the world, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, and government publications. - AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes engineering reference sources, with the latest editions of Marks Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, Perry's Chemical Engineers Handbook, Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers, Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain, and many more ebooks.
eJournals
- Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks
Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks (SEGAN)is an international peer-reviewed publication for theoretical and applied research dealing with energy, information grids and power networks, including smart grids from super to micro grid scales. - Sustainable Development
This journal is a wide interdisciplinary publication which seeks to further debate and discuss the important concept of sustainable development. The scope of the journal therefore allows for contributions which have a local, national or global focus from a philosophical to a practical perspective. - Sustainable Cities and Society
Sustainable Cities and Society (SCS) is an international journal focusing on fundamental and applied research aimed at designing, understanding, and promoting environmentally sustainable and socially resilient cities. - Sustainable Materials and Technologies
Sustainable Materials and Technologies (SM&T) is an international, cross-disciplinary journal, published by Elsevier. SM&T publishes original full-length research articles and reviews in applied or fundamental science of nano-, micro-, meso-, and macro-scale aspects of materials and technologies for sustainable development with special attention to contributions that reduce the knowledge gap between materials and system designs. - Journal of Humanitarian Engineering
The Journal of Humanitarian Engineering (JHE) is dedicated to disseminating evidence-based, peer-reviewed research, with the aim of improving best practice in the field of international development. The JHE publishes two issues per year.
E-books
- Knovel This link opens in a new window
Knovel provides general reference and best practice insights, process, and design applications, material and substance properties data, and equations for specific engineering disciplines. Provides interactive content including equations, graphs, and tables. It has technical reference resources from ebooks and standards as well as publishers including AIChE/CCPS, NACE, and more. - AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes engineering reference sources, with the latest editions of Marks Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, Perry's Chemical Engineers Handbook, Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers, Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain, and many more ebooks. - SpringerMaterials This link opens in a new window
SpringerMaterials provides curated data and advanced functionalities to support research in materials science, physics, chemistry, engineering, and other related fields.
Helpful Tips
The articles found in many scholarly journals go through a "peer-review" process. In other words, the articles are checked by academics and other experts. The information is therefore reliable. As well as containing scholarly information, journal articles can include reports and/or reviews of current research and topic-specific information.
Use scholarly journals when you need original research on a topic; articles and essays written by scholars or subject experts; factual documented information to reinforce a position; or references lists that point you to other relevant research. Scholarly journals take less time to publish than books, but the peer-review process can be lengthy.
Popular articles found in magazines are often written by journalist or professional writers for a general audience. They tend to be shorter than scholarly journal articles and rarely give full citations for sources. Popular articles from magazines are helpful if you want background on a topic that is new to you or very current information
Websites provide up-to-the minute news and information about current events, trends, and controversial topics. They may also contain government publications such as reports, statistics, legislation and service information; interviews, newspaper articles; research reports; conference/workshop/symposium papers; maps and other types of resources.