Document 4.1-B: Search Engines (Based on De Creacker, 2008)

Document 4.1-B: Search Engines (Based on De Creacker, 2008)

Document 4.1-B: Search engines (Based on De Creacker, 2008)

To complete a good literature search, it is important to know where you can find the relevant literature. Here you can find a list of the most important search engines:

  1. General search engines
  2. Open journals
  3. Environmental sciences
  4. Social sciences
  5. Vietnam Journals Online
  6. Links CTU
  7. What if you find the references but don't have access to the full text?

1. General search engines

1.1 Google Scholar

Google Scholar searches for scholarly literature such as theses, peer-reviewed papers, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports in many disciplines. The index is free and the full text of some items is freely available online, but there are many subscription articles.

Advanced Scholar Search ( is a tool that makes your search more efficient.

1.2 Google books

With Google Book Search you can find the full text of books. The main problem with this site is that only parts of the book are available online. But although the result isn’t perfect, Google Book Search can help you to find out more about all the books that have been published about your subject.

Advanced Book Search ( a tool to make your search more efficient.

1.3 ISI Web of Knowledge

ISI Web of Knowledge is an academic search engine in which you can find scientific journal publications from lots of different scientific areas such as science, technology, social sciences etc. The downside of this search engine is the fact that you - or CTU - need a subscription to access the site.

Web of Science - a part of ISI Web of Knowledge - is an academic database which offers high quality scientific literature. It has five databases with journals of science, technology, social sciences, arts and humanities.

1.4 ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect gives you directly access to the electronic available articles of Web of Science. The index is free and you can read the abstracts, but to see the full article, you need a subscription or you have to buy the article.

1.5 Scirus

Scirus is a big search engine that helps you find strictly selected scientific literature and websites. It searches not only in journals, but also in scientists’ homepages, courseware, websites of organizations, etc. It is a free index to find academic sources. It gives you the link to the full text article, which is usually on a site where you need to buy the article or have a subscription.

1.6 Scopus

Scopus is a large database and web-based research tool where you can find abstracts and citations of research literature and quality web sources. It contains journals in the scientific, technical, medical and social sciences fields. This database is very useful, but you need a subscription to access the index, the articles and the web content.

1.7 OJOSE (Online Journal Search Engine)

OJOSE has a free index and searches in many databases. It helps you find journals, articles, research reports or books, but you have to buy the full text article or have a subscription of the database where the scientific publication is located.

2. Open journals

Open access means that the index and the full text of the articles are free.

2.1 Directory of open access journals

This sites gives you access to scientific and scholarly journals of high quality. It includes articles of all subjects, in many languages.

2.2 The Open Agriculture Journal

The Open Agriculture Journal is an open access online journal, which publishes research articles, reviews, and letters in all areas of agricultural science. Topics covered include, agronomy; crop protection; breeding; genetics; soil science; statistical methods; and sustainable systems.

2.3 Public Knowledge Project

There are many open journals; we added this site as an example: there is a large list of open journals on it. If you search the internet, you will find several open journals in your scientific area.

3. Environmental Sciences

3.1 AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture)

AGORA provides free or low cost access to major scientific journals in a agriculture and related biological, environmental and social sciences to public institutions in developing countries. You need a subscription to enter the site; without a subscription you can find a list of journals, but no articles. CTU is registered, so if you have the password and username, you should have full access to the site and the articles.

3.2 OARE (Online Access to Research in the Environment)

OARE is a free or low cost search engine that enables developing countries to gain access to one of the world’s largest collections of environmental science research. CTU is registered.

3.3 The Lyell Collection

The Lyell Collection publishes journals and books of the Geological Society of London. Academic institutions of developing countries can register for free on the site. Without a registration, the index is freely available.

4. Social sciences

4.1 ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)

This website is an online digital library of education research and information. All the information is thoroughly screened by ERIC.

The site provides coverage of journal articles, conferences, technical reports, books, bibliographies and other education-related materials.

The index and the abstracts are free. ERIC gives you the option to select only the publications who's full text is freely available on ERIC. For the other publications, ERIC gives you the place where you can find the full text article.

4.2 APA (American Psychological Association)

The APA has listed several databases where you can find journals and full text articles about psychology. But you need a subscription to access the databases.

4.3 EBSCO Host

This site covers full-text articles on social sciences and humanities, economics, medicine and nursing in 8 sub-databases: Academic Search Premier; Business Source Premier; ERIC; Masterfile Premier; Newspaper Source; Health Source : Nursing & Academic; Health Source : Consumer Edition; Medline. CTU has a subscription.

4.4 Intute

Intute is an online service providing a database of hand selected Web resources for education and research. It has four different subject areas: arts and humanities, health and life sciences, science, engineering and technology and social sciences. The index is freelyavailable. It gives you links to open journals and journals that require a subscription.

5. Vietnam Journals Online

VJOL a database of journals published in Vietnam, covering the full range of academic disciplines.

6. Links CTU

Subscribed databases:

  • Blackwell Publishing and Synergy
  • EBSCO Host

Free of charge databases:

  • Beech Tree Publishing (IngentaConnect)
  • Geological Society (SERU)
  • Mineralogical Society of Great Britain & Ireland - MinAbs Online
  • University of California Press - Caliber
  • University of Chicago Press
  • Greenfile
  • Teacher Reference Center (TRC)
  • ...
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