Library: Computer Science: Search the literature

Computer Science databases

These library databases act as indexes to many thousands of journals. Some include other types of information such as books, patents and conference papers.

ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Database of full-text articles and bibliographic literature covering computing and information technology.
This includes the complete collection of ACM publications plus an extended bibliographic database of core works in computing from scholarly publishers.

ACM DL training video

Compendex via Engineering Village This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering information databases. Millions of journal articles, conference proceedings and book series with references dating as far back as 1884

Video: Compendex Keyword Search (6:59)

IEEE Xplore Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Almost one third of the world's current literature in electrical engineering, electronics and computer science, as published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Institution of Engineering and Technology. Full text access to journals, conference papers, standards, e-books.

IEEE Xplore help

INSPEC This link opens in a new window
Extensive index for physics, engineering and computing literature covering journals, conference proceedings, reports and dissertations from 1898 onwards.

Guide to INSPEC on Web of Science Platform

MathSciNet This link opens in a new window
A database of reviews, abstracts and bibliographic information for mathematical sciences literature.

MathScinet Help page

Databases for other subjects

Depending on your research topic, you may want to explore relevant literature in other subject areas. You will find below a link to a selection of research databases covering different subjects:

PubMed This link opens in a new window
FREE Index to biomedical literature from US National Library of Medicine.
If you have created an NCBI account to log in to PubMed, you now need to switch to a third party option, such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft or ORCID. Please refer to NCBI’s instructions and FAQs.

MathSciNet This link opens in a new window
A database of reviews, abstracts and bibliographic information for mathematical sciences literature.

MathSciNet Help Pages
MathSciNet quick start guide
Maths databases
Library databases for mathematical sciences

INSPEC This link opens in a new window
Extensive index for physics, engineering and computing literature covering journals, conference proceedings, reports and dissertations from 1898 onwards.
SPIE Digital library This link opens in a new window
The largest collection of optics and photonics applied research, providing full-text access to technical papers from SPIE journals and conference proceedings from 1962 onwards.

SPIE help centre
You can find further information on this page, including a downloadable user guide.

APA PsycNet This link opens in a new window
Mental health and psychology-related literature in: PsycInfo (articles, books and dissertations), PsycExtra (grey literature), PsycTests (tests and measures), PsycTherapy (videos of therapy demonstrations), PsycArticles (full text peer-reviewed articles published by APA and affiliated journals) and some APA books.

Looking for another database?

To explore the full range of databases that the Library makes available to you, use the A-Z List of Library Databases.

A-Z List of Library Databases

Journal collections and preprint repositories

CoRR computing research repository (arXiv.org) This link opens in a new window
The Computer Science section of arXiv. Search, browse and download computer science research papers.
Eurographics This link opens in a new window
Full text access to Computer Graphics Forum, conference and symposia proceedings, and dissertations.
IET research hub (journals) This link opens in a new window
The Institution of Engineering and Technology provides its journals portfolio to Open Access in partnership with Wiley. Content from IET Journals, from 2013, can be found on the IET Research hub. Note that IET conference proceedings continue to be available on both IEEE Xplore and the IET Digital Library.
MIT Press Direct This link opens in a new window
MIT Press journals about brain and cognitive science-related topics, including artificial intelligence and linguistics. For e-books, go to MIT CogNet.

General bibliographic databases

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Index to journals and conference papers across all subject areas.

Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new window
Index to selected journals, conference papers and book series across all subject areas.
Web of Science Core Collection consists of the following databases:

Science Citation Index
Social Sciences Citation Index
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Conference Proceedings Citation Index
Book Citation Index
Emerging Sources Citation Index
Current Chemical Reactions
Index Chemicus

Web of Science: all databases This link opens in a new window
Search across all databases on the Web of Science platform.
The University of Bath Library gives you access to these databases on the Web of Science platform:
- Web of Science Core Collection
- Biosis Citation Index
- Current Contents Index
- Data Citation Index
- Derwent Innovations Index
- Grants Index
- Inspec
- KCI - Korean Journal Database
- Medline
- Preprint Citation Index
- ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Citation Index
- SciELO Citation Index
- Zoological Record

Help with searching and evaluating literature

How to do a literature search
A generic guide introducing the basic techniques of literature searching including choosing and using keywords.
How to find books and journal articles
Advice on how to find useful books and journal articles for your study and research.
Web search guide
A guide to using internet search engines, Google databases and alternative tools.

How to evaluate journal articles and websites
Advice on evaluating information that you find in journal articles and websites.

Journal Citation Reports This link opens in a new window
Find journal impact factors. Impact factor is a widely used average citation based journal indicator.

How to do a systematic review
Advice on doing a systematic review: how to formulate a question, write a protocol, search literature, manage references, select studies, assess evidence and write-up.
Guide to using Covidence
The University subscribes to the Covidence tool, which you can use to screen references, review the full text of documents, assess risks of bias, extract both study characteristics and outcomes, and export references and data. To find out how to access and use Covidence, refer to the above guide.

Other sources of information

Library Catalogue
The Library catalogue is a great place to either find recommended reading or search for books on a topic.
Short videos to help you use the Library Catalogue

IEEE DataPort This link opens in a new window
Access over 5,500 datasets in machine learning, artificial intelligence, image and signal processing, and many other areas of computing and engineering.
You will need to have an IEEE login to view and download datasets.

Instructions for accessing a dataset on IEEE DataPort

Accessing IEEE DataPort dataset files through Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Data Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary index of datasets and other documents; some records include links to full datasets

Finding and reusing research datasets
Our Research Data Service provides information about how to find existing research datasets that you can use for your project, and how to cite data that you have used.

Finding dissertations and theses
Guidance on how to find University of Bath dissertations and theses in the Library and online or search other for dissertations and theses from other institutions. You will also find information here about how to submit your dissertation or thesis.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
PQDT Global is the world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses.
It includes millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present day together with more than a million full-text dissertations. The database offers full-text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It also includes PQDT UK and Ireland content.

Espacenet This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of over 120 million UK, European and world-wide patents. In addition, images of the paper publications are available back to 1920 for the UK, US, EPO, WIPO, France, Germany and Switzerland. Compiled and maintained by The European Patent Office.
Derwent Innovations Index This link opens in a new window
Search 97 million patents. All titles and abstracts are rewritten, with novel applications and specialist indexing added.
Google Patents This link opens in a new window
Search 87 million US and European patents, plus WIPO applications. Includes an Advanced Search and Prior Art Finder.
SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
SciFinder-n is the largest index to chemistry and related literature, including patents. Search by topic, author, compound name, molecular formula or structure.

British Standards Online (BSOL) This link opens in a new window
Online access to the full text of all current British Standards, including European Standards (EN) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adoptions.

Download and install FileOpen
PDFs downloaded from BSOL can only be opened using Adobe software (e.g. Adobe Reader) when you also have the FileOpen plug-in installed. Alternatively, you can use the Quick View option in BSOL to view the standards in your browser.

IEEE Xplore Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Full text access to IEEE journals, conference papers, standards, e-books.

Find company, industry information and stats

We have a wide range of company, industry and market research databases for product development research and to help build your commercial awareness. A selection of useful resources follows, for a full list see the Management's pages for Company information and Market research.

D&B Hoovers This link opens in a new window
Provided by Dunn and Bradstreet, this is a user-friendly source of information on 120 million companies. IMPORTANT: Please note that business and news databases are licenced for education and research purposes only and cannot be used for University business.
It offers financial and executive details plus a description of activities and competitors of public, private, and government-run enterprises. Graphs and charts allow users to quickly view and understand company trends and compare with competitors. It includes up to 10 years of historical financials, downloadable family trees, SWOT analyses and business triggers and signals (to spot business opportunities.)

Hoovers User Guide

Frost & Sullivan: Industry and Technology This link opens in a new window
Worldwide industrial markets and technological intelligence database. F&S provide full-text reports and commercial data, covering all areas of engineering, from aerospace to mobility, as well as allied areas e.g. healthcare.
MarketLine This link opens in a new window
MarketLine is a global business resource covering 120 industry sectors, 500,000+companies, 200 countries, and 1950 cities. Analysis includes Five Forces (Industry), SWOT (Company), PESTLE/PEST (Country), and Case Studies.
Industry data & analysis:
• 6000+ Industry Profiles including Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
• Market values, volumes, and forecasts for over 120 industry sectors and 50 countries
Company data & analysis:
• 500,000+ Company Database
• 100,000+ Company Profiles
• 12,000 SWOT Analyses
• 450+ Case Studies highlight best and worst practice
• Company News and Financial Deals tracked and updated daily
Country & City data & analysis:
• Key socio and macroeconomic indicators for more than 200 countries and 1950 cities
• Country Profiles and City Profiles evaluating Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental Factors
Data & Tools
• Screen companies and build lists of potential business partners, clients, and investment targets from a database of over 500,000 companies
• Stay informed of market developments with over 600,000 Company News articles and 400,000 Financial Deals
• Social Media Analytics - 'top mentions' of concepts, themes, sectors, companies, and hashtags.

PitchBook This link opens in a new window
PitchBook provides comprehensive, detailed data on the private and public markets - including companies, investors, funds, investments, exits and people. The platform includes industry news and in-depth reports. The private markets grow quickly in value and opportunity. To help you stay ahead in this competitive, fast-changing landscape, PitchBook provides insights into the flow of capital across the entire venture capital, private equity and M&A ecosystem.
Leveraged Commentary & Data (LCD) provides real-time news, data, tools and analysis on the US and European leveraged loan, high-yield bond, distressed and investment-grade corporate markets.

When you follow the link on the Library’s website you’ll be prompted to log in with your University email address to register with PitchBook via SSO. At the end of September each year the user registrations will be removed by Pitchbook and users will need to register again for the next academic year. Users won't lose information saved in the platform. Export and printing limits are 10 rows of company, deal, people or fund data per day and a maximum of 25 such rows per month. Note that there is no access to the apps or plugins - Pitchbook reserve these tools for faculty level accounts and an extra subscription is required (which offers unlimited daily downloads providing the total in a month is no more than 10,000 rows).

Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista is a Google-like search tool for market research and statistics with facts and figures easily displayed in charts and graphs. It provides access to more than one million statistics, ready to use in PPT, XLS and PNG format. Create a personal profile to make the best use of the Research AI tool on Statista.
• Access to 1 million statistics - ready to use in PPT, XLS and PNG formats.
• PowerPoint dossiers on 3000 of the most searched-for topics such as online gaming, e-commerce, car sharing and organic food markets.
• Five year revenue forecasts on 42 countries and 400 industries.
• Industry reports (USA-focused) including SWOT analyses and forecasts.

Computer Science: Search the literature

Literature search and reference management worksheet