Explore this section
Members and registered users
Find out about the preferential rates and generous discounts available to IET members as part of our Member Rewards scheme.
Seize control of your professional life with the IET Career Manager, our innovative online professional development tool.
Guidance and support to enable IET members to undertake planned and structured Initial Professional Development (IPD) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Lead by example. Inspire the next generation. Help to shape the profession.
Explore this section
Search today for your next engineering role on Engineering & Technology Jobs, the job board hosted by the IET.
Whether you design, install or maintain LED lighting systems, the IET's new Code of Practice will help build knowledge and confidence in this increasingly popular technology.
Access a wealth of digital content on the IET Digital Library, including over 400 ebooks in a range of specialist subject areas including Radar, Power, Control and many more…
The essential directory for buyers and suppliers of engineering and technology products and services. Start your search.
Explore this section
IET Communities provide like-minded people with opportunities to share ideas, collaborate, learn and network. With more than 100 Local and Technical Networks around the world, you can feel confident of finding a community that suits your interests.
Volunteering can enhance your career development, is a personally rewarding experience and also benefits your Community
MyCommunity, the IET's professional network and collaboration platform, enabling you to connect, interact and exchange knowledge with your peers
Explore this section
Highlighted events
2 - 3 February 2015 | Cavendish Conference Centre, London, UK
4 February 2015 | Broadway House, London, UK
17 March 2015 | Hallam Conference Centre, London, UK
19 March 2015 | Royal Institution, London, UK
Professor William Webb
Sir John O'Reilly
Explore this section
IET corporate news and activities, plus comment and reaction on engineering and technology issues.
Read what the media is saying about the IET and our activities.
We can provide independent experts to talk to the media on a range of engineering and technology related subjects.
Advice and support to IET members on promoting IET activities via the media and social media.
Key topics offer summaries of the IET’s positions on many of the most important policy topics.
The IET represents the views of its members on a wide range of professional and technological issues.
Offering unbiased, independent, evidence based policy advice.
The engineering profession speaking with one voice on key issues relating to engineering.
The Inspec Thesaurus is a subject key to the Inspec Database and as such provides a powerful search aid.
The 2012 edition contains 18,755 terms of which 9,722 terms are preferred terms (called Controlled Indexing, Descriptors or Subject Headings on various platforms). 9,033 terms are lead-ins (synonyms) - terms that advise the searcher which controlled term they should use for searching.
Inspec records contain on average three to six Thesaurus Terms that reflect the main concepts described by the title and abstract. This allows the searcher to retrieve all the major concepts dealt with by the author(s) without having to know all its synonyms.
The Thesaurus has a hierarchical structure, and for each Term there are other associated Terms. This enables the searcher to explore efficiently all ‘Inspec subject areas’. This is particularly important for information specialists who often have to search a wide range of very complex topics.
A typical entry for a Thesaurus Term and its associated terms is shown below:
Thesaurus Term: MOSFET
Scope note: Introduced: January 1995
Related Classification(s):
B2560R Insulated gate field effect transistors
More Specific (narrower) Terms: power MOSFET
More General (broader) Terms: MISFET
Related Terms: FinFET
metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors
MOS transistors
NMOS transistors
PMOS transistors
VMOS transistors
Search tips:
Searching by Thesaurus Terms field leads to more precise results as only topics that are important are indexed.
Because the various concepts are indexed consistently using Thesaurus Terms, it is not necessary to consider all the synonyms.
Inspec policy is to assign the most specific term appropriate to the subject of the document.
On most platforms (online systems), the Thesaurus Terms are part of the ‘Default search fields’ (also known as the Basic Index). This means that if you do not specify which fields you want to search, the system will search by default the four subject fields - the title, abstract, the Thesaurus Terms and the Uncontrolled Indexing Terms.
The full Inspec Thesaurus is available in XML format, print and PDF.
