Structure of Engineering Literature

Publications engineering topics fall into several functionally related areas. This guide describes each of those areas, their content, how to search them, and how they are related.

Articles: Scholarly, peer-reviewed sources

Part of the method of Science, which has developed over the past four hundred years, provides for the review and critiquing of one scientist's work by other peer scientists. The term "peer" means someone with similar or superior educational and scientific qualifications. Today, scientific journal articles are subjected to the peer-review of a panel of experts in the field before they are accepted for publication in a "peer-reviewed" journal. A manuscript submitted for publication, must meet the standards for methodology, completeness, and accuracy before it is accepted. The result is that the scientists in a particular subject field regulate and control the quality of scientific knowledge in their own field.

It is common for instructors to direct their student to use only or mainly "peer-reviewed" sources. As you will see below, there are plenty of non-peer-reviewed sources available. How can you identify which sources are peer-reviewed? It is actually somewhat of a problem in the online web environment. In the paper versions of journals there is a list of the members of the "review" or "editorial" board printed in either the front or back of each issue. In the online environment the article is generally presented to you outside of the journal context. You can try doing a web search for the journal's home page. On the journal's home page you should be able to see if it has an "editorial board." Some journals show the date when the manuscript was submitted for review and then the date when it was finally accepted for publication. If available, these dates would be on the first page of the article. Another way is to go to the Library Reference Desk and ask for Ulrich's Periodical Directory. It indicates which journals are peer reviewed.

In some subject areas there are professional journals that are not peer-reviewed but they conform to a high standard of scientific practice. Many of these publications are acceptable to instructors as sources for academic research. Peer-reviewed sources and these non-peer-reviewed professional articles can be identified by the structure of the article. Scientific articles generally have this structure:

Some of these parts may be merged into other parts or skipped, but most "scientific" articles that report the results of experimentation follow this pattern. Scholarly articles are listed in the special search engines for each subject area.

Conference papers

Every professional subject area has a number of regularly recurring conferences. Conferences convene on a regular basis such as once a year, every two years, etc. A conference is an opportunity for professionals to come together to share new developments and insights as well as to network with other professionals in their own field. There will be tracks or groups of related presentations scheduled over several days that are attended by tens or hundreds of conference attendees. At the end of the conference abstracts of presentations or full presentations are gathered together in what is known as a conference proceeding. Traditionally the conference proceeding was issued as a book containing hundreds of paper abstracts or full articles. There has been a trend more recently toward publishing conference proceedings on CD-ROMs or on the web.

A great many of the professional conference papers are listed in the same search engines that list articles. Getting your hands on a copy of the conference paper listed in the search engine can involve several steps. Cal Poly does not acquire all of the hundreds of conferences that are published each year, so we rely on the Library's Interlibrary Loan service to get a copy of the paper for you.

Trade publications

Articles in trade publications are not peer-reviewed. Trade publications are directed to workers in a particular field or specialized field. These publications provide very important services to professionals in the field. The articles can be summaries of new theory or technology, stories with pictures of developments at laboratories or companies, descriptions of new products, or news of trends in government policy and regulation. They also include lots of advertisements of products used by the professionals in that field. There are also announcements of conferences and training opportunities. Most professionals either personally subscribe to several of these magazines or their employer subscribes to them for the development group.

Trade magazine articles are usually listed along with peer-reviewed articles in the subject specific search engines. Since peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources are frequently listed in the same search engine, how can you tell them apart? Trade magazine articles do not follow the standard peer-reviewed article structure. But the most telling feature is that trade articles are colorful and artistic with artistic fonts and decorative page backgrounds. In the .pdf version you should also see advertisements around the article.

Mass media

This includes newsstand magazines and newspapers as well as radio and television (which are becoming increasingly available on the web). What are these good for? Major developments and breakthroughs in science and technology are covered in the mass media. These sources provide the social context for such developments. They provide the "so what?", "who cares?", "who or what will this impact?", and "how will this impact our daily lives?"

Books

Books summarize and distill what had previously been reported in hundreds of articles. Books generally cover a broader scope of a subject than articles and they bring together and synthesize information from a wide and diverse spectrum of topical areas. When you are approaching a subject area for the first time, books provide a very valuable service. Books can give you the breadth; articles can give you the depth. Some people feel that books are not as up to date as articles. This is generally true, but there are many newer books with carry information that is current enough for undergraduate research. Some people also feel that books are not as scholarly as peer-reviewed articles. In most situations the minute differences are not significant in an undergraduate research situation. When in doubt, discuss your books with your instructor.

Handbooks and Encyclopedias

In every discipline, there compact compilations of all the basic knowledge of that discipline. Most engineers have several of these handbooks in their main work area and they consult them all the time. Handbooks, and also discipline-specific encyclopedias, contain formulas, tables of standard data, abbreviated explanations of theory and practice together with lists of important information sources on the topic. These kinds of sources are the best places for undergraduates to get started on a subject.

Handbook topic examples

Computer Engineering and Science
Sections on computability, algorithms, data structures, digital logic, memory systems, neural networks, artificial intelligence, database models, information retrieval, graphics, human-computer interaction, operating systems, computer security, and software engineering.
Electrical Engineering
Sections on magnetism, electrical properties of materials, electric power systems, electronic circuits, telecommunications, and radio.
Materials Engineering
Sections on the testing and analysis, selection processes, properties, corrosion, and the development of materials.
Mechanical Engineering handbooks
Sections on mechanical design, mechanics, heat transfer, properties of materials, systems and control, energy and power, and management processes.

Technical reports

A lot of engineering research is written up into technical reports (much like a senior project). Organizations and government agencies that pay for research require that a report of the outcomes be produced and made available to the public. Quite often in addition to the technical report, researchers will publish journal articles and give conference papers describing the very same research. There are also technical reports produced in companies. These, however, are not made available to the public and constitute the "trade secrets" of those companies. There are two major groups of technical reports available to the public. The first are reports produced by various agencies of the federal government, such as NASA, the Defense Department, the Energy Department, EPA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of the Interior, and many other agencies. The second major group is reports produced at universities, such as MIT, Cal Tech, U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, and etc.

Standards

Engineers have established standardized methods of doing things and specifying materials. Standards cover such things as shapes, dimensions, sizes, material properties, tests, and processes. For example, data transmission codes conform to an international standard, many computer languages are specified in international standards, much computer terminology follows an international standard. Another type of standard that is becoming very important around the world is ISO 9000. This is a bundle of standards that specify procedures to assure quality, as in software development. Many companies and the federal government require the products they buy must conform to all federal, national, and international standards. Some of the major producers of standards are:

Patents

A patent is a legal document granting the patent owner the exclusive right to use and control some type of process. The patent holder can bar anyone else from producing such a product or can license the use of the method for a fee. Any commercial company or enterprise can be sued for copying a patented method without permission of the patent owner. There is, however, one exception. Students and faculty at a university can copy patented processes as long as the academic project or product is not shared off campus or over the Internet. It can be used in class projects but not displayed off campus. For students and faculty, patents can be a goldmine of ideas. Patents will include a detailed description of the method or process along with detailed diagrams.