SDOE Student Resources

Master's Project and Thesis Guidelines- NEW 2008 Cohort Process

Beginning Spring 2008, SSE will be organizing students working on projects into cohorts using WebCT to manage the process. There will be three cohorts a year, one beginning on January 15, a second on May 15 and a third on August 15, and each will be three and one-half months in length. The spring cohort is intended to support students who wish to graduate in May; the other two will allow students to graduate in January of the following year.

To be admitted to a cohort, a student will be required to have an approved abstract and a faculty advisor who has agreed to oversee their work. Students who would like to complete a project spring 2008 will therefore have to identify their topic and secure an advisor by January 15, 2008. The following documents, Master's Project Guidelines and Candidate Topics, will help you accomplish that milestone. Please review the documents carefully and begin talking to prospective advisors as soon as possible.

Students who have questions regarding the cohort process, can contact Dr. Michael Pennotti, Associate Dean for Professional Programs at Michael.Pennotti@stevens.edu, or the SDOE Program Manager at Shobi.Sivadasan@stevens.edu.

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Library Resources Guide: SSE

S.C. Williams Library, Stevens Institute of Technology: www.stevens.edu/library

iLink Online Catalog:
Search for books, e-Books, bound journals, theses, dissertations, senior reports, and microfilm owned by the Stevens Library.

Library Resources:
The Search Tools section helps you select appropriate research resources and provides an a-z list of online research resources including journal article databases, e-Books, and more.

The Library subscribes annually to online research resources.  Databases contain many different kinds of information in various formats.   Some of these include: abstracts (summaries) and/or the full text of scholarly/academic journal articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles, conference proceedings, references to books, references to dissertations and theses, patents, standards, online reference e-Books, and more.

The information you will find in the Library’s resources is consistently more reliable and more cutting-edge than what you will find if you conduct your research using the general Internet using a Google search, for example.

Scholarly and peer reviewed publications:
A publication is considered to be scholarly if it is authored by academics for a target audience that is mainly academic, the printed format isn't usually a glossy magazine, and it is published by a recognized society with academic goals and missions.

A publication is considered to be peer reviewed if its articles go through an official editorial process that involves review and approval by the author's peers (people who are experts in the same subject area.) Most (but not all) scholarly publications are peer reviewed.  Source: “About scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed.”  http://proquest.umi.com/  (18 June 2008)

Finding academic/scholarly journal articles & conference proceedings:
-ABI/INFORM – popular and scholarly business and management journal articles; many in full text.

-Academic Search Premier- search for multidisciplinary academic journal articles; many articles in full text.

-ACM Digital Library – full text of all Association for Computer Machinery publications.

-Business Source Premier – management, economics, finance, accounting, & international business journal articles.

-Engineering Village, featuring access to the Compendex & Inspec databases – abstracts of engineering, science, and information technology articles, proceedings.

-FirstSearch – access many multidisciplinary databases through one interface; includes Dissertations database.

-IEEE Xplore – full text of journals, standards, conference proceedings, magazines published by the IEEE.

-ScienceDirect – full text of major technical and scientific journals, published by Elsevier Science.

-Scopus – obtain abstracts, references, and “cited by” information for over 14,000 peer-reviewed journals. 

There are many more excellent research resources accessible through the Library web site. Try your searches in many databases to maximize your research results.

Finding newspaper & magazine articles:
-Lexis-Nexis Academic – newspapers, magazines, legal and business information; international.

-National Newspapers – newspapers from all over the United States.

Finding online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks:
-Engineering Handbooks Online – full text of reference handbooks from CRC Press.

-knovel Engineering & Scientific Reference – online encyclopedias, handbooks.

-Safari Tech Books Online – full text of leading technology reference books for IT & programming professionals.

Finding books & dissertations from other university libraries:
-FirstSearch WorldCat and Dissertations – search for books and/or dissertations in libraries worldwide; request them through the Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Services department.

Finding Patents:
The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) database contains searchable full-text of patents issued since 1976; full-page images since 1790, and patent applications published since March, 2001.  Also, you can search for patents from the USPTO, World Intellectual Property Organization, and the European Patent Office using the Scopus database.

Full Text Finder:
Use this tool to find out if the full text of a journal, magazine, or newspaper is available in any of the library databases.  If it’s not available, request the document you need through Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Services.

Multisearch discovery tool:
This tool allows you to search for your topic in many databases simultaneously.  Multisearch helps researchers discover which databases may contain the most information on their subject.

Accessing Library Databases from Off-Campus:
Instructions are available for connecting to the library research databases from off-campus locations by setting up a VPN.  If you have trouble connecting from off-campus, contact a Help Desk Consultant at the Office of Information Technology Computer Center at 201-216-5500.

Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Services:
If the Library does not have something you need on the bookshelves or in any of the online library research databases, we can get it for you!  Read more on the Library web site about requesting and obtaining journal articles, dissertations, standards, reports, conference proceedings, and books.
 
Citing your sources:
In the Search Tools section, the Tutorials and Guides area will provide helpful links to examples of various citation formats, including MLA, APA, and Chicago.  The citing sources tutorial also explains why it is so important to properly cite your sources.  The Stevens Writing Instruction Tutorial site is also very useful: http://www.stevens.edu/wit/research/links.shtml

Library blog:
The eSource blog provides updates on new library services and resources and other newsworthy posts for the Stevens community.  You can subscribe to the feed to stay informed of the latest news from the library.

IM Reference:
The Reference and Research Services Librarians can be reached through email, telephone, IM reference, and in-person at the Reference Desk.

If you have any questions regarding library research, please contact:
Linda S. Beninghove, Head of Reference and Research Services,  201-216-5412, linda.beninghove@stevens.edu

Valerie Forrestal, Reference and Research Services Librarian, 201-216-5361, valerie.forrestal@stevens.edu

Barbara Arnett, Reference and Research Services Librarian, 201-216-5382, barbara.arnett@stevens.edu

All of the above information and resources is available and searchable on the library website at www.stevens.edu/library