Head of STEM Librarians; Engineering Librarian
Physics and Mathematics Librarian
Eliot Boden
he/him
Contact:
In-Person: Tuesday, Wednesday
Remote: Monday, Thursday, Friday
*My location can change based on schedule requirements, please book an appointment to confirm an in-person or virtual (Zoom) meeting.
Olin Library 126
eliot.boden@wustl.edu
Remote: Monday, Thursday, Friday
*My location can change based on schedule requirements, please book an appointment to confirm an in-person or virtual (Zoom) meeting.
Olin Library 126
eliot.boden@wustl.edu
314-935-7929
Website
Subjects: Mathematics, Physics
Chemistry Librarian
Rhiannon Iha
Contact:
Washington University in St. Louis
Olin Library, 124
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone: 314.935.4818
Email: rkiha@wustl.edu
Olin Library, 124
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone: 314.935.4818
Email: rkiha@wustl.edu
Subjects: Chemistry
Biology & PNP Librarian
Sam Lindgren
she/her/hers
Contact:
Olin Library, Room 126
Email: lindgrens@wustl.edu
Email: lindgrens@wustl.edu
Phone: (314) 935-4581
Subjects: Biology, Philosophy-Neuroscience- Psychology
Explore possible research topics
- CQ Researcher (1991 - )Reports cover a single "hot" issue in depth, featuring comments from experts, lawmakers and citizens on all sides of every issue. A good alternative to Wikipedia for a topic overview.
- Search NewspapersDatabases that provide access to national, local, and international newspapers, such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.
- BrowZineDigital bookshelf for searching and browsing (get it?) current issues of scholarly journals and magazines, available in a web browser or as an app.
Refresh on how to do library research
- Conducting Research (Research Guide)Overview of the steps to conducting research if you need a refresh or haven't used the library for research before.
Find books/ebooks
- QuickSearch⭐Single combined search of the Classic Catalog catalog and the full-text articles of most library databases.
- Classic CatalogSearch and request books, ebooks, journal titles, government reports, and more.
NOTE: Does not allow searching for specific journal articles. - Interlibrary (ILLiad) LoanRequest books, articles, and more from other libraries. Preferable to MOBIUS.
Find articles and information
- Academic Search Complete (1975-present)⭐General database that covers topics in most areas of academic study. This is a great starting place for nearly every research project.
- Scopus⭐Science-focused database of peer-reviewed articles with tools for exploring the most-cited authors and publications in a field.
- IEEE XploreComputer Science and Electrical / Systems related topics would make great use of these sources from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
- PubMed (1946 - )Health and Medicine's premier database. Includes related disciplines such as life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering.
- StatistaGlobal statistics from multiple sources about government, business, finance, the media, and society. Excellent tools for data visualizations.
- Database FinderAll current database subscriptions. Sortable by Subject.
Cite your sources
- ZoteroBibIf you just need to create a one-off bibliography for a paper, ZoteroBib is the quickest, easiest, and most accurate citation generator.
- Zotero Reference ManagerA more feature-rich citation and research management tool. The full version of Zotero is free but requires download and installation.
- How to Use Zotero and ZoteroBibSetup and help documentation from WashU Libaries.
- Purdue OWLOnline Writing Lab - the best source of guidelines and examples for MLA, APA, and Chicago citation style on the internet.
- Citing Your Sources & Writing Styles (Research Guide)List of books in the WashU Libraries to support writing and citation in the sciences.
Find image and presentation resources
- Images Resources (Research Guide)Sources of copyright-free images suggested by WashU Librarians. For Tech Writing, especially consider those on the page Sciences & Social Sciences.
- Factiva (6 users)Global coverage of news sources, including images. Click "Pictures" on the right side after your search to filter to image results.
How to use GenAI Responsibly as a Reseach Tool
GenAI can help you:
- Identify relevant engineering standard numbers based on design prompt inputs.
- Summarize standards and standard requirements.
- Brainstorm keywords, subject headings, and additional research areas.
- Identify possible "experts."
- Help outline your report.
- Remember to fact-check all information generated as it could be wrong, outdated, or fabricated.
Best Practices for using GenAI as a research or writing tool:
- Start creative juices and overcome writer's block.
- Generate topics, keywords, and ideas.
- Help outline papers.
- Compare and contrast
- Refine research questions and thesis.
- Note effective prompts and strategies.
- Engineer your prompts to interact and converse with the GenAi.
- Be very specific with your language inputs.
- Consider the target audience and task.
- Refine your questions and responses-- it make take a couple back-and-forth questions and clarification to land on useful information.
- Fact-check everything. Then cite that other source.
- Beware of misinformation, programming bias, and hallucinations.
- GenAI will fake articles, standards, and citations.
- The free version of ChatGPT has limited knowledge of the world or events after 2021.
- Gemini will hallucinate the perfect standard --- that might not actually exist.
- If you copy/paste AI-generated text, you could plagiarize without knowing it.
Citations
- Hargadon, Steve. "Library 2.0's ChatGPT Bootcamp for Libraries and Librarians." Library 2.0, 3/25/2023, https://www.library20.com/bootcamps/chatgpt.
- Hood, Sarah. "Using Generative AI Responsibly for Brainstorming and Refining a Research Question." ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox. https://sandbox.acrl.org/resources/using-generative-ai-responsibly-brainstorming-and-refining-research-question-0