Retrospective information retrieval
You need to look for information about previous work when you are starting a new project. This is called a retrospective information search. These are of two types:
A more modern method is to make use of online Current Awareness databases that are frequently available via the campus network or via the Internet.
The need for factual information often arises during the work process and usually takes the form of a specific information requirement in order to continue working. This type of specific information can be found in tables, charts, dictionaries and factual data banks. You need a quick and reliable answer to a query - for example, the melting point of an alloy or the characteristics of a certain component. Handbooks and tables are renewed at frequent intervals, so make sure that you are using the most recent edition.
Other important sources of factual information are encyclopedias and handbooks.
Searching forwards from a known citation (reference)
The citation index is an entirely different type of index, which allows you to search forwards in time from a known relevant paper. In every field of scholarship, research workers and practitioners cite references to earlier publications related to the work described in their own papers. Through these references (citations) an author expresses subject relationships between the current article and the cited references. A citation index is based on these relationships. It lists publications that have been cited and identifies the sources of these citations. Starting from a known relevant reference, it is possible to trace subsequent articles which refer to the original document, thus leading to more recent literature than the first known item. Citation indexes are designed to facilitate searching forwards in time from a known relevant paper.
The Science Citation Index - SCI - covers journals in a wide range of subjects in the physical and natural sciences, medicine and technology.
Browsing is a form of random literature searching for information, in which you select and scan material within a mass of available literature. This type of search is often carried out outside your usual field of interest. This unplanned random information searching can serve as a stimulus and can be a very fruitful source of new ideas.