Will the website you are obtaining information from exist in five days? Five years? 100 years?
Ideal for your research, research databases allow searching within well-curated collection of literature that are reliable and permanent.
WHY NOT GOOGLE?
With its user-friendly, convenient interface, Google is used for trillions of searches for weather, restaurants, lyrics, and more every year. With effective searching, it can be a useful source to find background information on a topic.
For academic research, Google and even Google Scholar can lack sophisticated filtering and include non-scholarly or sponsored content.
WHAT IS A RESEARCH DATABASE?
A research database is an organized collection of reliable information, including journal articles, conference proceedings, books, standards, and patents. Carefully selected and indexed by subject experts, database content is domain specific, accurate, reliable, and discoverable. With engineering-specific databases, discover state-of-the-art research, stay up-to-date, and get inspired!
Examples of engineering-specific databases are Engineering Village, Web of Science, Knovel, Scopus, and arXiv.
For more information or questions, email us at engrref@cornell.edu or visit the Engineering Research Guide.