Information and Computer Sciences
Find General or Multidisciplinary Articles
The databases below are broad in scope and cover topics across disciplines. They are useful when you are getting started with a topic or looking for less technical articles.
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly journals from all academic disciplines - an excellent starting point for multidisciplinary research projects. 3,200 full-text journals. Coverage from 1975 to present. - Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowUse to access many UMass online journal subscriptions.
- Web of ScienceA comprehensive resource covering many areas of research, including the arts and humanities, social science, and the sciences. Can sort search results by date, times cited, author, and more.
- ScienceDirectFull-text scholarly journals from the sciences.
Use Subject-Specific Article Searches
The following databases and search engines specifically target computer science subject areas, so if you would like to look more deeply into a topic, try the links below!
- ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
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Journals of the Association for Computing Machinery, its conference proceedings, magazines, technical reports, and more, 1954-present. Includes some works published by affiliated organizations. Covers the fields of computing and information technology.
- astro-phAstrophysics category of arXiv® a free distribution service and an open archive for scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
- ArXiv.org e-Print Archive This link opens in a new windowOpen access to 1,487,358 e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance, Statistics, Electrical Engineering and Systems Science, and Economics.
- DBLPOpenly available computer science bibliography, including more than 4.4 million publications in major computer science publications. Provides free access to high quality metadata and links to electronic versions of publications where available.
- IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
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All IEEE journals (including Spectrum), standards, transactions, and major conference proceedings since 1988, plus some content since 1952, to present.
Find Books
Books in the libraries at UMass (and at many academic libraries in the United States and in several other countries) are organized by the standards set up by the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. This system helps libraries classify and organize the books on their shelves. It's not always intuitive, but there are guides to help you learn how to decipher the system!
Most of the materials in Computer Science are in the Q and QA call number area. See below for specific topics. And of course, try searching the catalog!
Q Science
Q 300 Cybernetics
Q 334-5 Artificial intelligence periodicals and books
QA Mathematics
QA 76 Computer science
QA 76.6 Programming
QA 76.7 Programming languages in general
QA 76.73 Individual programming languages arranged by name A-Z
Theses & Dissertations
- ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst This link opens in a new window
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A repository for the research and scholarly output of members of the UMass Amherst community. - Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new window
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US and Canadian dissertations and theses from 1861 to present. Mostly full-text 1997 to present.
Document Your Research
Use a Research Log to document the choices you make during your research process. A Research Log can be as simple or complex as you need it to be, but it should collect the following basic information, to help you track and think critically about your research.
- Your research question and keywords
- The databases that you searched
- Criteria used to refine your search
- The sources you've identified and their characteristics
You can also use this tool to keep notes on your progress. Write about what's been successful, what's frustrated you, or take notes about what you're reading. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, elaborate, or even academic -- just a way to keep a log of your thoughts and what you've found.
