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*Biological & Ecological Engineering

This is a general research guide for the undergraduate and graduate courses in OSU's Biological and Ecological Engineering programs. You'll find suggestions for locating books, articles, topical overviews, research tools, and factual information.

Start Broadly - 1Search

Find books, online scholarly articles or newspaper articles that OSU subscribes to.  If you need to find specific items, such as books by a particular author, use the advanced search option for more precise searching. Access 1Search from the library's home page.

1Search search bar showing two links: Databases A through Z and eJournals A through Z

 

Search Tips

Combine terms using "AND" or "OR"

AND narrows your search (fewer results);
OR broadens your search (more results) - use between synonyms 

For more successful searches:

  • Generate synonyms for keywords before you begin searching. Having a list of synonyms will help you if any of your keywords do not retrieve many results.
  • Look at the subject headings that are used in the database records you've retrieved. These subject headings may lead you to keywords that you had not considered.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar Search

You do allow embedded content.

A simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature.

Find out how to set your preferences in Google Scholar, so you can use OSU Libraries subscriptions to get free access to content that is not free on the web:

How to use Google Scholar (without Paying for the Articles)

Learn Google search operators

Recommended Databases for BEE

Finding the full text of an article

 Look for the 360 link to full text button to open the full article.

Options for getting to the PDF will open in a new window. Sometimes the link will take you to the journal, not the individual article. Use the citation information for the article to get to the right year, volume and issue of the journal.

If the library doesn't have it, request the article for free from Interlibrary Loan: https://library.oregonstate.edu/illiad On average, articles arrive digitally in 13 hours.