About Database

(Formerly SPINWeb from AIP)

Go to Scitation

The following quick-start guide has been created for CSUN students and researchers. For more information on using Scitation, consult Scitation Online Help.

Jump to: Restrictions & Requirements | Searching | Results |

Description

Scope & Coverage

Scitation is a full-text resource for 22 journals from AIP and other science and engineering societies.

CSUN's subscription includes access to the SPIN Web, a physics research environment that indexes and abstracts more than 100 major physics, astronomy, and engineering journals and conference proceedings. It provides access to over 1 million abstracts and is updated daily. Coverage from 1975. (Select the Browse Journals tab for a complete listing; cross reference with the CSUN List of Electronic Periodicals to identify full-text resources.)

Restrictions and Software Requirements

CSUN users (students, faculty, and staff) only

Searching

Full-text search and customization features are available with free registration. (Note: Registering will NOT provide access to full text for journals that are NOT included in our subscription. )

You do not need to register to search SPIN Web. Select the SPIN Web tab, and click the Search SPIN Database link.

Both the Publications Search and SPIN Web allow you to search up to three search criteria. Select Boolean operators (and, or, not near) using the scrolling menus.

Boolean and Proximity Search Operators

AND

narrows the search; finds documents containing both words

OR

broadens the search; finds documents containing either words

NOT

Finds documents containing the word preceding it and excludes documents containing the word that follows it.

[NEAR]

Finds documents containing phrases, words that are adjacent to each other, e.g. optical [NEAR/3] systems

, (comma)

Finds documents containing at least one of the words specified, ranking them using "the more, the better" approach, so documents with the most evidence of the words searched for are given the highest rank.

?

Wildcard operator that represents any one character. You can use a ? to specify the first letter.

*

Wildcard operator that represents one or more characters. You cannot use a * to specify the first letter of a word

' (single quotes)

Placing a word in single quotation marks finds stemmed variations of the word. Example: the query 'edit' finds "edited," "editing," and "edition."

" (double quotes)

Placing a word in double quotation marks finds exact matches only, excluding stemmed variations of the word. Example: the query "edit" matches the word "edit" only, not the words "edited," "editing," or "edition."

[THESAURUS]

Thesaurus operator that searches for documents containing words that are synonyms for the word you specify. Example: the query [THESAURUS] altitude retrieves documents that include the words "height" and "elevation," as well as "altitude."

Results

Search results are displayed as a list of article titles that are hyperlinked to the article abstract and full-text delivery options. Results list includes option to further refine search. Searches can be done on a single journal or multiple. Available to individual as members of AIP societies (APS, OSA, etc.) and as a bonus to institutional subscribers to e-journals in AIP's Scitation.