SEARCHING TIPS
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators allow you create searches that combine keywords and search terms for more relevant search results.
- AND - narrows the search by searching for both terms
- Ex. safety AND crossings, returns results that contain safety and crossing
- OR - broadens the search by searching for either terms
- Ex. safety OR security, returns results that contain either the safety or security
- NOT - narrows the search by excluding a term
- Ex. Safety and security NOT crimes, returns results that contain safety and security, but not crimes
Searching Tips
Here are some general searching tips
- Use quotation marks "" to search a phrase
- Ex. "Railroad safety"
- Use the wildcard symbol (usually an asterisk *) to search for alternate endings of words
- Ex. cross* will also search for crosses, crossed, crossing, crossings
- Use parenthesis () to nest search terms and keywords
- Ex. ("Railroad grade crossings" OR grade crossings) AND vehicle*
- You can combine Boolean searching with other searching tips
- Complex searches can be as ineffective as searches that are too simple
Literature Searching and Literature Reviews
- Literature Searches and Literature Reviews for Transportation Research ProjectsTRB E-Circular 194: Literature Searches and Literature Reviews for Transportation Research Projects addresses the necessary steps for producing a high-quality literature review for a transportation research project. The circular explores how to conduct literature searches; where to search for transportation information; how to put it all together as a quality literature review; and what the definitions are for related terms.
ENGINEERING DATABASES
- TRIDTRID is the worlds largest and most comprehensive transportation database. It integrates the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) Transportation Research Information Services Database and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID is indexed using the Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT) and terms from the ITRD Thesaurus are searchable also.
- National Transportation Library (NTL)NTL collects across transportation, specifically focused on information from US DOT, state DOTs, and other transportation organizations. Content types found in ROSA P include text, links to websites, datasets, images, video, other multimedia, and maps. NTL uses Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings and TRT.
- Google Scholar (includes Get at KU) This link opens in a new windowA web search engine that provides a way to search the scholarly literature including articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions. Sources include academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites.
- IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new windowProvides access to IEEE/IET Electronic Library (IEL). Includes full-text documents; IEEE and IET journals, magazines, transactions, and conference proceedings; all approved and published IEEE standards; complete backfile to 1988 and select content back to 1913; INSPEC abstract/citation records. KU's subscription does not include full text access to continuing education courses (multi-media), IEEE books (bibliographic information only) and draft standards. This resource is being funded through collaborative efforts between the KU Libraries and the School of Engineering. (Restricted to 15 simultaneous users.)
- Web of science This link opens in a new windowIndexes and abstracts citations in research journals across the disciplinary spectrum. Online version of: Arts and humanities citation index (1975-present); Science citation index (1900-present); and Social sciences citation index (1956-present).
- ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts of articles on business and management from U.S. and international professional publications, academic journals, and trade magazines, and regional business publications. This also includes access to ABI/INFORM Dateline, Global, Trade & Industry, and Archive. This could be helpful if you need to know information about the business side of your research project.
TRANSPORTATION E-JOURNALS
- Transportation Research RecordTRR is the peer-reviewed journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRB). It is one of the most highly cited transportation journals. It published approximately 70 issues a year. TRR covers topics on policy, planning, administration, economics and financing, operations, construction, design, maintenance, safety, and more, for all modes of transportation. Electronic access for this journal goes back to 1996.
- Transportation Engineering E-JournalsKU Libraries has 86 e-journals that cover topics in transportation engineering. Of the 86 e-journals, 14 are specific to railroads and trains. This link will take you to all 86, so that you can explore the ones that work best for your project.
THESAURI: TRT & ITRD THESAURUS
- Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT)TRT is the controlled vocabulary used to index the contents TRID. Use the TRT to generate search terms to use in TRID along with your natural language keywords.
- Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT) and User's GuideThis user guide will help you to develop the skills needed to effectively and efficiently search for controlled vocabulary terms in TRT.
- International Transport Research Document (ITRD) Thesaurus 2015This is the English alphabetical list of terms in the ITRD Thesaurus as of 2015. To have full access to a searchable term database requires a membership to ITRD or a subscription. However, this list can still be useful in helping you to generate terms to use when searching TRID.