How to Search for Literature and Data in Thesis Writing? These Websites You Need to Know!

[baoshi.rao]

They say the first step is always the hardest, and the most frustrating part of writing a thesis is collecting literature and data in the early stages! Sometimes, a single piece of data can consume a lot of time and effort. Finding it might bring some relief, but failing to locate the data or literature can be truly exasperating. At such times, a guide to search methods is essential. So, the thoughtful Xiao Niang has compiled some search methods for everyone!

1. Learn to Utilize University Library Resources

Here, library resources refer to online library resources. Most universities have synchronized offline book and literature information. They also provide students with free access to search websites, including CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and Chaoxing Erya. Among these, CNKI is relatively more widely used by universities. Students can access it for free via the university's local network. Additionally, CNKI is very comprehensive, covering over 5,400 domestic journals, more than 540 newspapers, and materials across various fields, including management knowledge, decision-making consultation, competitive intelligence, market analysis, and innovative technology for enterprises and institutions.

2. Professional Institutional Websites

The search methods mentioned above provide relatively comprehensive literature and data. If you need more specialized data research, you can visit websites dedicated to specific content. Here are some database websites: Domestic Thesis Search:

1. National Science and Technology Library (NSTL) Chinese Thesis Database (free abstracts): http://www.nstl.gov.cn/nstl
2. CALIS University Thesis Database (free abstracts): http://opac.calis.edu.cn/
3. Tsinghua Tongfang - China Excellent Doctoral/Master's Thesis Full-text Database (free abstracts, paid full-text): http://epub.cnki.net/kns/brief/result.aspx?dbPrefix=CDMD

Note: Tsinghua Tongfang's "China Excellent Doctoral/Master's Thesis Full-text Database" provides electronic versions of Chinese theses, but full-text access requires purchase. The abstract database can be searched for free.

International Thesis Search:

UMI Dissertation Database (http://wwwlib.umi.com/) allows searching over 1.6 million theses from more than 1,000 European and American universities since 1861. For theses from 1997 onwards, users can view abstracts and the first 24 pages of the original text.

Domestic Patent Literature Search:

1. China National Intellectual Property Administration: http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo/zljs/default.htm
2. China Patent Information Center: http://www.patent.com.cn/

Through "Patent Search," users can freely search all Chinese patent information (with abstracts). To obtain full patent texts, users need to visit the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

International Patent Literature Search:

1. European Patent Office Patent Database: http://ep.espacenet.com/ (free abstracts)

2. United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Database: http://www.uspto.gov/ (free abstracts and full-text)

3. World Intellectual Property Organization: http://www.wipo.gov/ (free abstracts)

4. IBM Patent Database Resources: http://www.patents.ibm.com/ (free abstracts, partial full-text) How to Search for Standard Documents Online?

5. To find over 1,350 standards published by IEEE/IEE, you can search and access full texts at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/.

6. World Wide Web Virtual Library for Standards
   This is a comprehensive site about standards, including URLs of various standard organizations and some sources for obtaining standard documents.

7. IEEE Standards Library lists full texts and descriptions of standards issued by IEEE, which can be searched.

8. ISO International Standards allows browsing or searching ISO standards, but only provides classification numbers and keywords without abstracts.

9. PERINORM: The Premier International Standards Database offers over 450,000 standards worldwide, including those from ISO, ETSI, ASTM, ASME, IEEE, and other organizations.

How to Retrieve Citation Status of Papers? Which Citation Databases Can Be Used?

1. For citation status of papers published in foreign journals, you can use ISI's Web of Science in the U.S. (http://isi3.isiknowledge.com/). It provides all references cited by each document and offers powerful citation search and analysis functions.
2. For citation status of papers published in domestic journals, you can use the China Science Citation Database (http://sdb.csdl.ac.cn/).

How to Search for Scientific Data?

1. China Science Database: http://www.sdb.ac.cn/
   This database, built by researchers from ten institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides extensive scientific data and materials collected through observations, surveys, experiments, and calculations.
2. Beilstein/Gmelin CrossFire is the world's most comprehensive database for organic and inorganic chemical data and facts.

How to Access Detailed Information About Highly Cited Authors Across Disciplines?

ISI Web of Knowledge offers a Highly Cited Researchers website: http://isihighlycited.com/.
This site compiles research achievements and personal information of the world's most cited and influential scientists, serving as the fastest way to identify key figures in any research field. It includes scientists' resumes, research directions, published papers, books, etc.

How to Find a Journal's Impact Factor?

The journal impact factor is a key indicator of a journal's academic level. Generally, the higher the impact factor, the greater its academic influence. ISI's JCR: Journal Citation Reports is one of the most important tools for journal evaluation and the authoritative source for finding impact factors. Website: http://isi3.isiknowledge.com/portal.egi JCR includes over 5,000 international natural science journals and more than 1,600 international social science journals. It provides data such as journal impact factors, total citation counts, immediacy index, total number of articles (Articles), and cited half-life, along with their rankings. JCR helps researchers understand the international influence of various journals, thereby determining the direction for their paper submissions. Additionally, you can visit http://www.isinet.com/journals/ to search and find out which journals are included in SCI and which domestically published journals are SCI-indexed.

Some websites may not support online reading and downloading, so you can try multiple platforms for retrieval. I won't list them all here. Finally, let me mention a few platforms that you might use every day without noticing. They may not be as "high-end" as those listed above, but they are very practical—Doc88 and Baidu Wenku. Among them, Doc88 collects more papers than VIP and also supports online reading. Although copying requires a membership, here’s a little trick: you can use the smart text recognition function on your phone by touching the screen with both hands. It might be a bit cumbersome, but it’s definitely faster than typing word by word!

That’s all for today’s introduction to paper data collection methods. Next time, I’ll share more useful and interesting knowledge about papers!

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