LibGuides@Southampton: Technical Information: Science & Engineering Data

Sources of Science and Engineering Data

There are a number of useful datasets available to you through the library. You may also be able to request data from other researchers or find it online.

There are also guidance on Environment, Health and Ocean & Earth data and statistics.

Useful Print Reference Works

Although most resources in this area are now online, there are a few key titles in print that contain data:

The ASM Handbook by ASM Handbook Committee
ISBN: 0871703882
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics by William M. Haynes (Editor)
ISBN: 9781439880494
Publication Date: 2012-06-22
Jane's all the world's aircraft by Jackson, Paul
ISBN: 9780710629555

Support for Technical Information

If you have any queries about technical information, the resources mentioned or wish to make any comments about these pages, please contact us (libenqs@soton.ac.uk).

Key Datasets

British Standards Online This link opens in a new window
Search and access the full text of all current British Standards and many international standards (e.g. ISOs/IECs). See Terms & Conditions for printing and copying.
*From 1/9/2021 onwards, you will need to have the FileOpen plug-in installed to access BSI documents.
The plug-in can be downloaded from Serviceline here. For more information click here.
Digimap This link opens in a new window
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Digimap is an online map and data delivery service. Operated by EDINA at the University of Edinburgh, Digimap offers a number of data collections, including Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, LiDAR and marine maps and spatial data. Registration is required.
ESDU Data This link opens in a new window
ESDU is an engineering knowledge base which provides essential design and analysis methods and guides, data and software tools to help solve complex engineering problems. These design guides can be used in a wide range of engineering disciplines, including ISVR, aerospace, mechanical, civil, transportation and chemical engineering.
Espacenet This link opens in a new window
Search and access full text of patents from over 90 countries. To restrict to UK patents add 'GB' to the 'Publication number' field.
MatWeb This link opens in a new window
Dataset allowing searching for specific materials matching required properties or finding properties for a specific polymer, alloy, etc.

Full Text Electronic Sources - Contemporary Newspapers

Financial Times This link opens in a new window
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The Financial Times website. Provides FT articles, in-depth 'Special Reports', facsimile of the newspaper from 2005 onwards, and company and financial information.
Please note: Creating an account is no longer necessary. If you have previously created an account you need to open this link in an incognito window, which will then take you directly to the sign-up page.
You will then be able to sign-up with their university login details.
http://ft.com/UniSouthampton copy and paste this link

Gale Journals and Newspapers
Gale Journals and Newspapers provides access to 4 different databases. A broad collection of news articles, magazines, books, academic journals, images and video that support general interest research and exploration.

Nexis This link opens in a new window
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An essential repository for news archives, company data and accurate research for every industry - with unique insights from over 40,000 sources, including trusted up-to-date and archived news, company profiles, public records, industry information and social media content. Further information
PressReader This link opens in a new window
PressReader provides digital access to over 7000 Top newspapers and magazines from more than 120 countries. (Access off-campus is currently only available via VPN but we are working with the supplier to enable access via Shibboleth).
For the best possible browsing experience we recommend using the Pressreader App available on Google Play and App Store

Key Online Technical Report Collections

NASA Technical Reports Server This link opens in a new window
Search across the many abstracts and technical report servers that NASA makes available. The Scientific & Technical Information page may also be useful.

Accessing Chemical Data and Literature

Search these databases for literature, structures, reactions and properties in ChemSpider, Reaxys, SciFinder-n, PubChem and PSDS. The UK Physical Sciences Data-science Service (PSDS) was previously known as the National Chemical Database Service.

ChemSpider This link opens in a new window
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ChemSpider covers 67 million structures, properties and associated information from freely available chemical data. It is owned by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Try the new version of ChemSpider here
SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
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SciFinder, the online version of Chemical Abstracts, is the main database for chemistry. It provides easy access substance and reaction information, patent and journal references. It is for individual, not-for-profit use only. Personal registration required.
Please choose Scifinder-n from the drop down menu
Reaxys This link opens in a new window
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Reaxys covers an extensive collection of organic, organo-metallic, and inorganic chemistry data. Reaxys enables you to search by structure, substructure, reaction, text, and property data.
Physical Sciences Data-science Service This link opens in a new window
The PSDS is a new National Research Facility which brings together tools and resources for UK researches in physical sciences, including chemistry, crystallography, materials, and related fields.
To identify which resource to use in PSDS go to https://www.psds.ac.uk/resources

PubChem
PubChem is an open chemistry database at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Open” means that you can put your scientific data in PubChem and that others may use it. Since the launch in 2004, PubChem has become a key chemical information resource for scientists, students, and the general public. Each month our website and programmatic services provide data to several million users worldwide.

Search these databases for accessing literature, indexes to journals and conference papers.

CORE This link opens in a new window
Core is the world’s largest collection of open access full text research papers - aggregating and enriching open access research papers from around the world.
ESDU Data This link opens in a new window
ESDU is an engineering knowledge base which provides essential design and analysis methods and guides, data and software tools to help solve complex engineering problems. These design guides can be used in a wide range of engineering disciplines, including ISVR, aerospace, mechanical, civil, transportation and chemical engineering.
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
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Full text access to all IET and IEEE journals and conferences since 1988 and all active and archival (but not draft) IEEE standards.
INSPEC This link opens in a new window
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A leading database in the fields of physics, electronics and electrical engineering, computers and control, and information technology. It contains abstracts of articles from over 3000 journals, as well as conference proceedings, books, technical reports and dissertations. Coverage: 1966 to date. Further information
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Includes 1,500+ leading academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences,
Also lists select monographs and other academic sources such as Hebrew language journals
Scopus This link opens in a new window
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Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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Previously called the Web of Knowledge. Provides access to a number of databases including Web of Science Core Collection (covering engineering, science, health, social science, humanities, etc.), BIOSIS (biological & biomedical science) and Inspec (physics, computing, electrical & electronic engineering, etc.). Select 'All Databases’ to search multiple databases simultaneously or choose an individual database.