Computer Science

Facts and Background Information
Selected print and electronic encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.
Books
Locate items in the library catalog and other libraries.
Articles
Use indexes to search for articles in journals, proceedings, etc.
Websites
Recommended academic, professional, and learned societies sites, and more.
Contact a Librarian

Below are a few major, frequently used sources for the study of computer science. The computer science literature is international in scope and organized into primary (the first public record of the research) and secondary (works derived from primary sources) publications, although this distinction is beginning to be blurred in some web resources.

For additional information on sources please consult a librarian. Internet resources require a Tufts I.D. number for off-campus access (authorized user statement)

 

Facts and Background Information     [back to top]

Reference Resources

Bibliographies

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies

DBLP Computer Science Bibliography

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Prentice Hall’s Illustrated Dictionary of Computing
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QA76.15 .N33 1995]
Entries take into account Greek, Latin, Arabic, French and English origins of words; also includes a style manual for correct usage of computer terminology.

Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence
[PRINT. Tisch Reference Q335 .E53 1992]
Brings together the core knowledge for artificial intelligence from a variety of fields.

Encyclopedia of Computer Science
[PRINT. Tisch Book Stacks QA76.15 .E48 1993]
Basic reference to computer science and technology; the discipline and its history.

Encyclopedia of Computer Science
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QA76.15 .E48 2000]

Encyclopedia of Software Engineering
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QA76.758 .E53 1994]
Emphasis on practical aspects as opposed to theoretical concepts.

Oxford Reference Online--Computing
Dictionary of Computing. Dictionary of the Internet.

Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems
From three sources: American Society of Cybernetics glossary, Krippendorff’s Dictionary, and Hornung’s Glossary. A hypertext dictionary that is a part of Cybernetics and Systems Theory in the Principia CyberneticaWeb.

Directories

Community of Science (COS)
An internet site for the global research and development community. Within the site are COS Expertise, which gives personal profiles of professionals in the research community, and COS Funding Opportunities, a prime source for grant information.

Data Tables

On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
A database of over 52,000 integer sequences compiled by AT&T fellow Neil J. A. Sloane. Literature references are provided for known sequences.

Government Resources

Computer Incident Advisory Capability
Source for computer virus information.

Computer Security Resource Center (CSRS). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The focus of this website is information security management, research and testing.

Information Technology Laboratory. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Conducts research and develops test methods and standards for emerging and rapidly changing information technologies.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life.

Images

Scientific Visualization Sites
Annotated bibliography of scientific visualization sites. A service of NAS (Numerical Aerospace Simulation).

News

C/NET
Latest tech news on hardware and software.

ZDNet
Site for news, how-to’s and help guides.

Reviews

Computing Reviews. ACM.
A source for expert critiques of published work in the computing disciplines.

Societies & Associations

Association for Computing Machinery. ACM.
Founded in 1947 to advance the application of information technology. Site includes a conference calendar and a graduate assistantship directory.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society
Founded in 1946 to advance the theory and application of computer and information technology. Site includes a conference calendar.

Standards and Specifications

IEEE Standards Product Catalog

American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

Computer and Communication Standards and Cross References

Defense Standardization Program Library

International Standards Organization (ISO)

National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Standards

National Institute of Standards (NIST) Standards and Technology Regulations

Resources for Writing

Bibliographic Citation Manager(s)

RefWorks
A web-based reference/citation and bibliography manager. Allows users to keep track of and download citations from our internet databases/indexes and then use these references in writing papers and automatically formatting papers and the bibliographies. This software works with EndNote too!

Dictionaries

Acronyms Server

Oxford English Dictionary Online

Oxford Reference Online--Computing
Dictionary of computing. Dictionary of the internet.

Style Manuals & Guides

Elements of Style by William J Strunk

Resources for Writers

Find Books     [back to top]

A library’s catalog covers most aspects of a subject over centuries of publications in many languages. Catalogs can be searched by author, title, subject, and keyword. Tisch Library uses the Library of Congress (LC) classification scheme. LC classification brings similar books together on the shelves, which facilitates browsing. Computer Science books are classified in QA76.

The Catalogs

Library Catalog How To Use

Boston Library Consortium Catalogs How To Use

Harvard University Library System Catalog (HOLLIS)

National Research Council of Canada
Includes Canada Institute for Scientific & Technical Information (CISTI).

WorldCat. First Search. How To Use
Click on WorldCat or select WorldCat database from the search box.
Covers almost all of the catalogs of the major research libraries, as well as public libraries.

Other Sources for Books

Books in Print
Lists books currently in print and available on the market for purchasing.

Document Delivery
Borrow from other libraries, both books and journal articles.

The Online Books Page: QA – Mathematics and Computer Science
List of online books that are freely readable from the University of Pennsylvania’s Digital Library.

The Online Books Page: TK – Electrical Engineering (and computer networks); Nuclear Engineering
List of online books that are freely readable from the University of Pennsylvania’s Digital Library.

Find Articles     [back to top]

To locate articles or research papers within periodicals and journals, it is necessary to use specialized databases known as indexes. Database Searching Tips (also available in PDF) provides valuable information on how to construct a search for best results.

Indexes

Computer Science Indexes

Computer Technology. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts IDS platform. How To Use
Select Computer Technology and click on Quick Search to retrieve the following indexes:

INSPEC 1969-
Institution of Electrical Engineering. 1969-
Access is via Engineering Village 2, the Institute of Physics AXIOM research service. Choose INSPEC in the Select Database box on the EV2 homepage. For standard service a password is not required. For enhanced service providing personalization, alerting, and search history, you will need to create an account with a password. INSPEC is the leading database for the world's literature in physics, electrical and electronics engineering, computing, and information technology. It corresponds to the print publications Physics Abstracts, Electrical and Electronic Abstracts, and Computer and Control Abstracts.

Science Indexes

Science Citation Index Expanded 1945- How To Use
Part of the ISI Web of Science. Provides author, subject and citation access to journal articles and book reviews in the sciences, as well as citation values for particular papers, citation tracking, and related records. Updated weekly.

Scopus. Elsevier, 1966-
An index to the world's scientific, technical and medical literature (14,000 scholarly titles), including 2,700 titles in Social Science, Psychology and Economics. Updated daily. Non-English titles are covered as long as English abstracts are available. Full-text linking is available wherever the technology and the access arrangements permit and continues to expand as such arrangements allow. Integrated web searching and patent searching by Scirus.

Current Contents How To Use
An ISI current awareness database with an interdisciplinary focus. Covers science, social science and humanities; includes latest issue of the journal with table of contents from over 8,000 of the world’s research journals and some evaluated scholarly websites. Can create auto alerts for e-mail updates. Has search and journal browse functions. Updated daily.

Electronic journals

Periodicals are listed in the library catalog. Holdings in all formats are unified in one record, and most entries for journals held in electronic format contain a hyperlink to the source. Searches in the web-based catalog enable one to follow these links directly. A complete list of electronic journals is on the Tisch homepage under Electronic Journals.

Key Weekly Science Journals

Nature. Nature Publishing Group.
Current: v387-, 1997-
Back volumes v. 54-84 (1896-1910) and v.132- (1937-): [PRINT. Tisch Bound Periodicals Q1 .N2]
Back volumes v.112-131 (1923-1933): [MICROFORMS. R93]

Science
Current: v270-, (1995- )
Back volumes v.1-270, (1800-1995)

Collections of Electronic Journals

ACM Digital Library
A resource for bibliographic information, abstracts, reviews, and full text articles for ACM periodicals (1985-) and proceedings (1991-).

Blackwell Synergy. Blackwell Publishing.
Provides full-text access to 600+ scholarly journals. To browse Computing select Engineering, Computing and Technology.

IEEEXplore 1988-
IEEEXplore provides full-text access to all IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) journals and conferences published since 1988, all current IEEE standards, and all IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) journals and conferences published since 1988, as well as selected IEEE journals published since 1950.

ScienceDirect. Elsevier.
A database of over 1,700 journal titles covering the life, physical, technical and social sciences. Titles start with the initial volume of publication; all titles have tables of contents and abstracts, and most have full text articles. Tufts has access to approximately 800 titles from 1995 to date. The titles formerly published by Academic Press commence with 1993. Green boxes indicate subscribed titles; white boxes are for non-subscribed titles. Please note: ScienceDirect no longer provides access to non-subscribed titles. Articles from non-subscribed titles must be obtained from Tisch Document Delivery or purchased directly from ScienceDirect.

SIAM Journals Online
Electronic journals of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

SpringerLink. Springer Verlag.
Provides access to 460+ electronic journals with full-text and some book series. The focus is on science and technology. Browse Computer Science Online Library. To gain access to the Springer A-Z journal list, pull down the top right hand bar.

Wiley InterScience
Provides full-text access to 300+ journals published by John Wiley & Sons. Browse Computer Science journals.

Other Sources for Research Papers

Pre-prints, conferences and proceedings, dissertations, and technical reports are other sources for original research.

ArXiv.org e-print archive
A preprint archive for physics and related disciplines. Originally the Los Alamos National Laboratory E-Print Archive; now at Cornell University.

ISI Proceedings How To Use
An index to the published literature of significant conferences, symposia, and seminars.

Dissertation Abstracts. First Search. 1861- How To Use
Indexes dissertations accepted at accredited institutions; covers all disciplines. Updated monthly.

Tufts University Dissertations. ProQuest, 1996- How To Use
Tufts dissertations and theses published in Dissertation Abstracts from 1996 to date. Provides full-text access.

GrayLit Network. U.S. Government.
A science portal of technical reports from the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA.

Patents Indexes

Derwent Innovations Index How To Use
A resource for patent literature from 40 patent issuing authorities. Uses the ISI search interface and links forward in time to citing patents and backwards in time to cited patents. Coverage for some patents begins in 1963.

esp@cenet. Searchable Worldwide Patents database. 1920-
Free worldwide patent information with full-text patents.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Website for the USPTO. Information on patenting an idea, doing a patent search, and locating a patent depository library.

USPTO Patent Classification Home Page
U.S. Manual on Patent Classification searchable website.

Find Web Resources on the Internet

In the 1980’s the World Wide Web emerged and spawned publications of its own, independent of the print traditions. Information retrieved from the open web must be reviewed for authority, accuracy and authenticity. Keeping these limitations in mind, there are some excellent information resources available from the open web, especially those associated with government agencies and universities. See how to evaluate web resources.

Google How To Use
A top ranked web search engine, with good relevancy. Uses tabs at the top of the search box. The Directory tab is a Page Rank version of the Open Directory. Browse Computer Science. There is also a tab for Images and News.

Alltheweb.com How To Use
Good web search engine. Indexes full webpage, PDF files, Microsoft Word files, and text within Flash files. Also includes tabs for databases of news, pictures, videos, audio and FTP files.

Science Web Search Engines

Scirus How To Use
A comprehensive science-specific search engine. Locates peer-reviewed articles.

Websites     [back to top]

CogNet
Provides a collection of searchable electronic texts for the cognitive and brain sciences containing works from the MIT Press, as well as information on new research, job listings, discussion groups & lectures.

EEVL: The Internet Guide to Engineering, Mathematics, and Computing
A search engine for high quality resources on the net.

Galaxy: Computer Technology
A listing of websites relating to computer technology.

Java
A resource for Java technology.

Software Engineering Institute
A federally funded research and development center hosted by Carnegie Mellon to support the engineering and development of reliable software.

O’Reilly Network
Information on computer software organized into site and resource centers.

WWW Virtual Library – Concurrent Systems

WWW Virtual Library – Software Engineering

WWW Virtual Library - Computing

Yahoo – Computers and Internet

Yahoo – Reference Standards

Contact a Librarian     [back to top]

Miriam Allman. Contact for questions about library collections.
Karen Vagts: contact for reference questions and instruction requests.

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