GETTING STARTED
At the list of    Available Databases   mark the range of years you wish to search, then    Start Searching

SEARCHING
The default search is   Find Terms: Anywhere,  a keyword option which looks for the selected words adjacent to each other, such as in a phrase.

• If you want individual keywords from anywhere in the record, type  AND  between your search terms.
• When you want to find records containing any of the alternative words for a concept, enclose the words in round brackets with  OR  typed between each term.
• Use an asterisk * for truncation to collect plurals and alternative endings for a word stem.

insect* AND  (robot*  OR  microrobot*  OR  micromechanical)

At the double arrowhead icon  <>   click on the right arrowhead  >  for the next records, the left arrowhead  <  for the previous records, or  Go To Record  number.

Click on Complete Record  to view the full description of an article,  including the  Language:   of the article, the   Abstract:,   number of    References:,   subject headings  (Descriptors:),  Identifiers:  words and phrases taken from the article,   Classification codes:  INSPEC shorthand for subjects,  and   Treatment codes:  indicating the nature of the article,  whether practical, research, or theoretical.

Press  Enter  to see the next complete record.  Click on the  Show All Results  page icon to return to the search results.

To view the full record for a set of results, click on  Change Display  at the left-hand side of the bar above the results list.  Under Fields to Display  select the display format required, such as Complete Record then click  OK.

Mark  a record by clicking on the box to the left of the title. To view the set of records created, go to Show:  (from the right-hand side of the bar above the results lists) and select Marked Results.

To display the results of an earlier set, click on Search History  then  click on the icon to Display  the records for that search.

OUTPUT
To Print, Save  or  E-mail records,  select the appropriate icon from the right-hand side of the pale yellow bar above the results list.

The defaults are  Marked records  and  Displayed Fields.  The defaults may be changed at this stage, select from  Send these records:  for  All records, Marked records  or a specified range of  Record  numbers, then select from  Send these fields:  your prefered display format such as  Complete Record.

EXTEND A SEARCH from the full record by following links within a full record -

• Click on the Author name to retrieve all other records for that name.  Remember that there may be other articles with different versions of the name, eg.
LIEBELT-M
LIEBELT-MJ
• Click on a Descriptor  (Subject Heading) to find other records which share this Subject Heading.
• Click on the Source title to find records for all papers from the journal or conference.  Use with care, remember that not all of the papers will be on your topic!

MODIFY A SEARCH strategy for more specific results

Specify a PHRASE  to be searched.
In INSPEC the default search, for words without an operator between them, is to find the search terms next to each other but in any order.  To specify the exact order of the words put inverted commas around the phrase, eg.

"friction stir welding"

Use SEARCH HISTORY  to get a list of previous searches.  To look at the results of a search again, click on the icon under  Display.

One useful feature of  INSPEC is the ability to combine the results of previous searches by using the set number instead of re-typing a search strategy.

• You can combine sets by typing the set numbers with the appropriate Boolean operator, eg.
#3(set number) AND  #7(set number).

• You can make a set more specific by adding additional search terms, eg.
#1(set number) AND  (alumin* OR magnes*)

Use  Search History   to run your search strategy in another range of years from  the INSPEC database.
Firstly, click on   Change   to get to the list of years, mark the box(es) to select the appropriate period, then click on  Start Searching.
Now click on  Search History  to view the list of your searches in the previously selected years and click on  Rerun  to find the records for the appropriate search strategy in the newly selected years.
 

IMPROVING YOUR RESULTS ON INSPEC

Use  SUGGEST  to find appropriate subject heading(s) for your topic.
Type a word or phrase in the search bar and  click on Suggest  for a list of subject headings which include the concept.  Remember to try variations in the search term, eg.

insect   gives	insects  gives	insect*  gives
biological-techniques	insects	agriculture
biomimetics	artificial-life	neural-nets
mobile-robots	biomechanics	biomimetics
neural-nets	biomimetics	insect
biomechanics	social-insects	microrobots
cellular-biophysics	swarm-intelligence	neurophysiology
insect	zoology	piezoelectric-actuators
kinematics	biological-research-technique	CO-sub-2
microrobots	distributed control	aerodynamics
neurophysiology	feedback	aerospace robotics

If the  Suggest  button is not active, use  Change  to reduce the range of years to be searched.  While  Suggest  works with all years individually, there are some combinations of years where this function  will not work!  Please contact me, Kay Leverett, Engineering Librarian, if things don't work.
 

The  INDEX  provides an alphabetical list of terms in the free text fields.
Click on  Index  then type in a word or phrase and press Enter to bring up a sequence of words and phrases beginning with the search term.

Click on the appropriate word or phrase to retrieve a list of records which include your search term.
Alternatively, click in the small box to the left of each word or phrase to mark the words or phrases you want searched.  Click on Search Marked  to get a list of the records which include the selected term(s).

The  THESAURUS  provides a list of the formal subject headings  (Descriptors:)  which can be assigned to describe the content of an article.
Click on  Thesaurus  then type in a word or phrase  from a subject heading  (Descriptors:)  and click on  Go To Terms  to move to that section in the list of the subject headings  (Descriptors:)  or references in the   Thesaurus.

Click in the small box to the left of  one or more subject heading to mark those headings you want searched.

• Click on Search Marked  to get a list of the articles which have been assigned one of the marked subject headings.
• Click on Explode Marked  to get a list of the articles which have been assigned one of the marked subject headings, or any of the more specific subject headings related to the headings you selected.  use this option with care!  You can get very large numbers of results.

Click on a subject heading to see a display of the other subject headings related to the topic.  These are arranged as   More Specific (narrower) Terms,    (Less Specific (broader) terms,   and  Related terms.

• To search for the subject, or one or more terms, select the check boxes next to each one then click Search Marked.

ADVANCED  search allows you to restrict terms to a specific field.
Click on  Advanced  to get the search template.  Type search terms in the search bars, select the field to be searched, select the operator to combine the terms.
Advanced  search is a useful way of finding articles about a specific material using the Material Identity Number(MN).

Select  Material Identity Number(MN)  as a field and type the code number, eg.

        H866*

       H866*      in      Material Identity Number(MN)
  AND
       #2             in      (Terms anywhere)

Use   LIMIT  to restrict a search result by Publication Year (PY),  Record Type (RT), Country of Publication (CP), Language (LA) and Treatment code (TR) such as theoretical, technical, general.

go to INSPEC
 

Please Logout to leave the database.

If you don't find what you need,  please come and see me Kay Leverett, Engineering Librarian or contact me by phone or email

Electrical and electronic abstracts.  1903-1999
Reference collection  621.305  S4

Computer and control abstracts.  1966-1999
Reference collection  629.805  S416

also
Cumulative index to proceedings of the IEEE.   1951-1971.
Reference collection  621.305  I59t

continued in
Index to IEEE publications.  1971-
Reference collection  621.305  I59
 

If you can't find what you need please check with the Engineering Librarian before giving up!