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Research Guides

Starting points for your research


Civil and Environmental Engineering Research Guide

Your gateway to UW Libraries online and physical materials (books, journal articles, manuals, technical reports, etc.) in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

UW WorldCat

UW WorldCat searches all UW Campus Libraries, the UW Law Library, the Summit consortial catalog and academic, and public libraries around the world.  Use it to find find books, articles, and more. Use the Request button to borrow materials from these libraries.  It also allows you to save and email your results, and share them using social bookmarking tools.


UW Libraries Search

During summer 2013 we launched UW Libraries Search, a major cooperative effort with a consortium of 36 other academic libraries across the region. Eventually it will be your gateway to the online, print, and media materials in the UW Libraries.  Currently,  you can use the 'Request/Place hold' button to have a book pulled from the shelves and sent to the library of your choice. 

Article & Research Databases

Powerful search tools for searching many years (past and present) of civil and environmental engineering, general engineering and any related disciplines, all at once.  

E-journals

Check here if you're looking for a particular journal.  If you're looking for articles on a particular topic, choose a research database to search across many journals at once.

Technical Reports

Technical Reports are publications published to convey results of research usually funded by government or corporate bodies. When the government performs or sponsors research, they may require that a report of the research be published as a way to maintain public disclosure. Technical reports are most familiar to engineers, geologists, and physicists, but are usually not peer-reviewed. This guide will help you locate technical reports in the Libraries or online.

Conference Proceedings

Conference proceedings are also called Congresses, Symposiums, Colloquiums, etc. They are shelved according to their subject area in the Engineering Library (on the third or fourth floors) or some may be online. This guide will help decipher the often confusing citations of conference proceedings so you can find them in the Libraries.

Dissertations & Theses

It is often helpful to explore the published theses in your field. This guide will help you find dissertations and theses written at the UW and at universitiies worldwide.

Additional Subject guides

Here is a list of all Subject guides in the Engineering disciplines.

Looking for research tools in other subjects and disciplines?  Visit these pages for other key starting points.

Get Stuff

The following free services help you tap into materials throughout the University of Washington Libraries and beyond:

Summit Libraries

We're part of a large network of academic libraries in Washington State and Oregon that shares collections.  When you search in UW WorldCat, you'll identify materials in these other libraries, and then request them with the click of a button. Delivery usually takes about 3-5 days.  Read more ...

Interlibrary Loan

When you identify materials that aren't available here or in our Summit network, you can request them through our Interlibrary Loan service.  Most articles are delivered electronically within a couple of days; books may take 1-2 weeks. Start here to create your account for this free service.

Desktop Article Delivery

Never photocopy another journal article again. When you identify articles in journals that we only have in hard copy at UW Libraries, place your request for them online, and we'll pull it from the shelf, scan the article, and deposit it in your Interlibrary Loan account.  Usually takes about one working day.  Read more ...

Suggest a Puchase

Suggest that materials be added to the collection.  Budgets are tight, but I'll do my best to purchase the books and media that you need to for your research and teaching.  Note: subscribing to journals is a bit more challenging, but it never hurts to ask!  Contact me or use the Libraries online form.  

Google Scholar

Google Scholar
find journal articles, conference papers, theses & dissertations, academic websites and more in all subjects.  Be sure to check your Google Scholar preferences.  Make sure "University of Washington Libraries - Check for Full-Text @ UW" is checked under "Library Links." 

For more information about searching Google Scholar to find UW materials, watch the Google Scholar How Do I ...? video.

Recommended Databases for Transportation Research

Connect from off-campus

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Use your UW NetID to search  UW Restricted databases from off campus.

Current UW student, faculty, or staff can access any of UW’s online resources from off-campus; make sure you log in before connecting to UW-restricted resources. | Time - 01:09 | Transcript | Play Video

Try the proxy bookmarklet to simplify things!

How do I find the article if it's not in the database?

The UW Libraries subscribes to many databases because they do not include the same publications.  The publishers decide which databases may include the full text of their articles.  If a database does not provide the full text of the article that you need, select a button: 

or

These buttons will search to see if the Libraries has the article online in a different database and, if we don't, see if the Libraries has the journal in paper.