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Don't forget to take advantage of INSPEC!

The IET has a wide variety of services that can be really advantageous to students, and some they may not even be aware of. One that all students – especially final years – should be aware of is Inspec; the leading English-language database comprising of records of scientific and technical articles published worldwide.

For students studying under the remit of engineering and technology, Inspec is a great resource, allowing you to search for papers written on the topics you are currently studying.

“Inspec provides comprehensive coverage of traditional and cutting-edge publications in the specific fields of physics, electrical and electronic engineering, communications, computer science, control engineering, information technology, manufacturing and mechanical engineering,” highlights Charles Martinez, a member of the IET’s Inspec team.

“In addition there is significant coverage of areas such as operations research, material science, oceanography, engineering mathematics, nuclear engineering, environmental science, geophysics, nanotechnology, biomedical technology and biophysics,” he adds.

Inspec is an invaluable tool for engineering, physics and IT/computing undergraduates, as it is easy to use and exact taxonomy provides you; the student, access to a wide and interesting array of scientific publications. Whether researching for a project, literature review or just personal interest, you can be assured to find a vast selection of relevant topics alongside related items.

And Inspec isn’t a service that gets ‘stale’ over time. Terms and classification are continuously kept up to date, allowing you to find the latest scientific developments as soon as they crop up. The classification system allows you quickly and easily sort through papers on such diverse topics as robotics and geophysics, enabling you to reduce the number of papers you have to read to a handful. By free indexing (using the author’s own terminology) Inspec searches take on a whole new dimension, were you can find newly coined popular terms and abbreviations.

In addition, Inspec isn’t just a database you can turn to. If you have interests in specific areas, you can sign up for regular email updates to keep you informed about publications in your chosen subject, and you can even solicit expert searches by our information professionals.

So there you have it; Inspec in a nutshell. But to give you a clearer picture of how Inspec can work for you as an IET student member, we asked Martinez what the student specific benefits are of using Inspec, and how you can benefit from going to an ‘Inspec’d’ university.

“The first port of call for a student carrying out some subject research, is the Internet, normally by typing in one term for example ‘nanotechnology’ you will receive a multitude of hits most of which are useless to you. Inspec searches can be as controlled or opened ended as you wish, allowing for an initial perusal or a more specific exploration for exact topics,” he responds. “The Inspec database prides itself on the quality and the integrity of its data. This has been recognised by the award of ISI 9001:2000 accreditation for the quality of the records, timeliness and consistency of coverage.”

But Inspec isn’t just a resource for you to use, as a student you can also submit your papers for inclusion in the database. You can submit papers to peer reviewed journals, after acceptance if the journal is included in the Inspec database this will be thoroughly indexed and appear as an Inspec record.

“The IET understands the difficulty undergraduates have to publish their work so we strive to include subjects and contents that will appeal and be accessible to a wide audience, for this reason there will soon be opportunities for user generated content to be hosted on Inspec. A young persons video award will be announced to generate a greater level of student involvement in Inspec,” highlights Martinez.

There will soon be a series of presentations touring UK universities, explaining what Inspec does, how it works and how it can help students, so keep checking in to the Student and Apprenticeship site for more details when they are available.

For more information on Inspec, go to http://www.theiet.org/publishing/inspec/.

Only IET accredited university courses have access to Inspec on campus. Below is a list of the relevant universities:

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