What kinds of resources do you need?
Current research and experiments: Look for scholarly articles in one of our databases.
- Looking for a topic in physics or astronomy? Start with Web of Science or NASA ADS (astronomy only).
- Looking for the most up-to-date research? Try arXiv, which includes preprints (papers that will later be published in journals), or NASA ADS, which searches arXiv.
- Looking for a topic that includes other disciplines? Use Web of Science for all sciences, Biological Abstracts for biology, GeoRef for geosciences, and ERIC for physics education.
An overview of a topic: Look for books or reference materials using our catalog.
- Looking for a brief overview of a topic you don’t already know? Search our catalog for the word “encyclopedia” plus a broad topic (ex. encyclopedia physics). Or browse our reference collection on Library North 2 (look under Q for science, R for medicine, and T for technology).
- Looking for in-depth explorations of a topic or field? Search our catalog for the topic. If you don’t find anything, search for a broader topic (e.g. star formation instead of T Tauri star).
- Looking for the most up-to-date overviews of recent research? Look for review articles in one of the above databases.
