Fogler Guide to Transportation Engineering

The following are selected resources that are available at Fogler Library or on the Internet. If you have questions about finding information related to Transportation Engineering, please contact the Science and Engineering Center: 581-1691 or email Martin Wallace. Or use our Ask a Librarian service.

CONTENTS

Indexes & Databases

Tips for Searching:

• Use truncation to allow for the various spellings of a word. Truncation symbol for most databases is the * (asterisk). For example: Comput* will retrieve: computer, computing, computers, computational, etc.
• Use double quotes to search for an exact phrase: "wave energy" will retrieve much more precise results. Searching without quotes in most databases yields a search for - wave and energy. Finds the words anywhere in the same record not as a phrase.
• Check the length of the article. Would probably not want to pursue articles under 3 pages unless you are looking for news items to gather information on companies or research labs making news.
• Use synonyms to make your search more comprehensive. Link synonyms with 'or' operator. For example: underwater or submers*
• Link concepts with the 'and' operator. Use parentheses to group synonyms together when using one search box. For example: (hybrid* or electric*) and (automobile* or vehicle* or cars or car)
• When you have located some relevant articles, review the abstract and subject headings of these records. Utilize subject headings for more precise results. Most databases you can click on a subject heading for a new search and then refine this new search with additional keywords.
• Utilize the bibliography at the end of relevant research papers to expand your list of resources. Some of these references may have errors. It has been found that 20% of the references cited will have an error.

Most Relevant databases:

• Transportation Research Information Service (TRIS). TRIS Online is the largest research index to transportation information. It is produced by the Transportation Research Board and indexes over 535,000 records covering books, journal articles, technical reports and other articles. Coverage includes Federal, state, local and association publications and conference proceedings from the 1960s to the present. There are links provided when the full text document is available on the internet. Search the database by author, title, subject, corporate author/publisher, journal/conference title. A Transportation Research Thesaurus is available to download and provide guidance on searching TRIS. Also be sure to see theHelppage for valuable search tips.
• Transportation Research Board (TRB). Fogler owns almost all of their publications.They publish several technical reports series that disseminate important transportation research results. Use the TRB Publications Index or the URSUS online catalog to locate reports on your topic. They also make available the Research in Progress Database. This includes over 6,000 projects. Most of these have received state or federal funding.
  Technical report series of the TRB: See TRB Publications. See the guide to searching.
  National Cooperative Highway Research Program. Report. (TE7.N25)
  National Cooperative Highway Research Program. Research Results Digest.
  National Cooperative Highway Research Program. Web Documents
  Research Results Digest (National Cooperative Highway Research Program)
  Research Results Digest (Transit Cooperative Research Program)
  Special Reports (Most are located at TE1.N25 or check URSUS)
  Synthesis of Highway Practice (TE7.H51)
  Synthesis of Transit Practice (TA1001.5.N381)
  Transit Cooperative Research Program. Report (TA1001.5.N361)
  Transit Cooperative Research Program. Research Results Digest.
  Transit Cooperative Research Program. Web Documents
  Transportation Research Board. TRB Policy Study Letter Reports and Other Brief Reports.
  Transportation Research Board. Special Report. (TE1.N25)
• TranStats: The Intermodal Transportation Database. Database provided by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. DOT.
• TRANweb: Transportation Article File. Produced by the Northwestern University Transportation Library. Coverage of journals, newsletters and conference papers from 1976 to present.
• State of Maine. Department of Transportation. See the Bureaus and Offices web pages for reports and research studies.
• Compendex (Engineering Index). Coverage is 1970 - Present. The best multidisciplinary engineering database that indexes over 5000 engineering journals, conferences and technical reports. Use their subject headings to obtain more precise results. Access is provided by the following indexes: author, author's affiliation (university or company), keywords from the abstract and title, subject terms and source title (journal or conference title). Compendex is part of the Engineering Village. This service also provides specialized indexing of the Internet, a technical standards database, and a link to the U.S. Patent Database. Print copy in Sci Index TA1.E6, 1884 - 1995.
• Web of Science. Coverage is 1900 to present. Online version of Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Citation searching provides one method for bringing your list of references more up- to- date. Take your most important known papers and use this index to determine if they have been cited by more recent journal articles. They index over 8,500 journals but do not include technical reports, conference papers or theses.
• ASCE Civil Engineering Database. PARTIAL FULL TEXT DATABASE. The database covers ASCE documents published 1973 to present. It provides access to all the journals, conference proceedings, books, standards, manuals, magazines, and newsletters. A unique feature of the database is that it links discussions, closures, and errata's back to the original records. The full page image of all journal articles is available from 1999 to present. For coverage prior to 1973, use the "Cumulative Index to ASCE Publications," 1950 - 1979. Located at Sci Index TA1.A53.
• Academic Search Premier. PARTIAL FULL TEXT DATABASE. Provides full text for over 3,200 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Good resource for a few basic articles on a topic. Good for newspaper coverage and public policy and business aspects. This database is designed for undergraduate research. For a more comprehensive search, search Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier and Master File Premier at the same time. Select the Choose Databases link in the EBSCO interface to select multiple databases.
• Advanced Technology Vehicles. Document Database. Provides indexing and access to the full text of technical reports on fuel cells, hybrid vehicles, alternative fuels, etc. Produced by the Dept. of Energy, Clean Cities Program.
• Alternative Fuels Data Center Background information and full text publications by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
• DOE Information Bridge. FULL TEXT DATABASE. Full-text reports for 1995 to present contracted by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
• Health and Safety Science Abstracts. Coverage is 1981 - present. Provides citations and abstracts to the literature on public health, safety, and industrial hygiene. Draws on government reports as well as journal articles, conference proceedings, books, and other publications. Major areas of subject coverage include occupational safety and health, transportation, environmental and ecology, food and drugs, pesticides, natural disasters, toxicology, etc.
• National Transportation Library. Digital Collection Must see! Over 5,000 full-text documents on transportation planning. A service of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Additional databases that would be helpful:

• Business and Company Resource Center. PARTIAL FULL TEXT DATABASE
• Business Source Premier. PARTIAL FULL TEXT DATABASE. Provides full text for over 3200 business and industry journals. Coverage is back to the 1950's for some important publications and contains detailed company profiles for the world's 5,000 largest companies
• California PATH Database. Provides access to research on intelligent transportation systems. It contains over 24,000 records from the 1940s to the present. This is also searchable within the TRIS database.
• Dissertations and Theses (Proquest). Indexes dissertations and theses written by graduates of North American and European universities. The complete text of dissertations written at the University of Maine after 1996 is included.
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Provides access to the full text of over 1100 free scholarly journals. Some journals are searchable at the article level. Also provides access by broad subject areas.
• Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). Scientific and Technical Information Network. PARTIAL FULL TEXT DATABASE. Access to all unclassified, unlimitedcitations to documents added into DTIC from late December 1974 to present, many from 1998 to present in full text.
• Engineering E-Journal Search Engine. Produced by the EEVL . This index searches the full text of over 150 engineering e-journals which are free on the Internet.
• Environmental Engineering Abstracts. Coverage is 1990 - Present. Produced by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. The focus of this database is engineering aspects of air and water quality, environmental safety, and energy production. More than 700 primary journals are covered and over 2,500 additional sources, including monographs and conference proceedings.
• Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management. Provides access to the electronic versions of several standard indexes. Coverage is back to the 1960's for most databases. May be helpful to search all the files at once.
• Google Scholar. Beta version, under construction. Indexes scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. Google Scholar includes articles from a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities. They rank results based on their relevance criteria.
• IEEE Xplore. IEEE Xplore is a searchable database which includes the 130+ journals published by the IEEE and IEE and also their conference proceedings and the current edition of IEEE standards. Indexing extends back to 1988 for all journals and conference proceedings and further back to 1950 for selected publications. Full text of IEEE journal articles is available for 1998 to present. Full text is not available through IEEE Xplore for the IEE journals or IEEE and IEE conference proceedings and standards. Check URSUS to determine our holdings of these publications. The database allows simple keyword and phrase searching or complex search queries employing a variety of operators. Tables of contents are available for browsing and there is also a useful alerting service. Register to have an email alert sent of the table of contents when a new issue is published. We have contracted for 5 simultaneous users.
• Military and Government Collection. PARTIAL FULL TEXT DATABASE. Search over 600 military titles, government periodicals, trade publications and newsweeklies for topics concerning all branches of the military. Full text is available for more than a third of the periodicals indexed. Over 240 pamphlets are also included.
• MInd: The Meetings Index. Provides a free databases of future national and international conferences, regional meetings, and short courses.
• NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS). This database collects, archives, and disseminates aerospace information produced by NASA and other relevant worldwide research.
• Pollution Abstracts. 1981 - present. Presented by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts this resources covers air, water, land and noise pollution. Industry pollution problems and solutions are covered. Updated monthly.
• Science Accelerator, Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Department of Energy. Search collections of DOE research results, project descriptions, and accomplishments. These collections enable you to find out about ongoing research projects, explore significant DOE discoveries, learn about DOE Nobel Prize Winners, access and search scientific e-prints, locate science conference papers and proceedings, patents, and more.
• Science.gov New improved gateway to U.S. government publications and web sites. 12 major science agencies are collaborating on this project. They have recently added relevancy-ranked order to the results of a search. It includes 30 databases and over 1700 web sites.
• Science Citation Index. Paper copy at Sci Index Q1.A1S36. Holdings are 1965 to present. An excellent multidisciplinary science information source which leads you to papers that cite a paper of interest, thus resulting in records for articles that you may not find using traditional subject or keyword searching. To learn how to use it, ask a Science and Engineering Center librarian. Online access is available through Web of Science, online coverage is 1900 to present.
• ScienceDirect. FULL TEXT FOR UMAINE SUBSCRIBED JOURNAL TITLES ONLY (1800+). Online access to full text from 1995 for most titles. Sign up for automatic notification when new issues are published.
• Scirus. produced by Elsevier. Use for searching instead of ScienceDirect interface. Use this Advanced search which provides many options for full text searching and across a variety of databases.
• TranStats: Intermodal Transportation Database This is produced by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. This data library allows you to explore by mode of transportation, broad subject areas or by the agency producing the data. Also has a keyword search engine.
• Virtual Technical Reports Center. Maintained by the University of Maryland Libraries. Links to institutions worldwide that provide full text and indexing to their reports, dissertations, reprints and preprints.