FEATURE
Engineering Information for invention
Engineering underpins every part of our lives. Siân Harris finds out about the information needs of engineers today
I
magine you are developing a chipset for a new smartphone, working out the best material for encasing a reactor or designing the foundations of a suspension bridge. These – and many more – are everyday
challenges for engineers and the results affect all of us. But what information is available to help them address such challenges and how do typical research information sources fit into the engineering landscape? Firstly, there is no single answer to either of
those questions. The background research on mobile-phone technology is, of course, different from that of the rock types underlying the proposed bridge site. But there are differences beyond subject material too. There are also differences in the ways that different types of engineers prioritise information types, as well
as variations depending on what it is they are working on. As Karen Hawkins, senior director, product design at IEEE explained, ‘Engineers use information in different ways depending upon what type of work they do and where they are in a project’s life cycle.’
She pointed out that, early in a project, an engineer may do a survey of the literature to learn if a particular type of problem has already been addressed or if an idea is a new opportunity. But there are other information needs: ‘IEEE, in addition to publishing journals and conference proceedings, is a standards development organisation. Later in the life of a project an engineer may refer to standards to ensure interoperability of a product or system,’ she added. In addition, engineers need to monitor new developments in technology and to find answers to specific problems.
There is also some general-interest reading: ‘Of course, some engineers read scientific literature simply because they have a personal interest in science and technology,’ noted Eric Pepper, director of publications at SPIE. Ben Ramster, journals manager at ICE Publishing agreed: ‘Civil engineering
Mixing scholarly literature and patents
Engineers are experts at turning ideas into practice and so the bringing together of scholarly papers and patent information makes good sense. This is just what the engineering society publisher IET and patent search tool company Minesoft (which provides the PatBase global patent database) have done with the recent announcement of the Minesoft Inspec platform. As
Katy Wood, Minesoft’s marketing
manager explains: ‘We recognised the value of the Inspec database for the patent searching community. Inspec is an invaluable non-patent literature source for prior art, state-of-the- art and current awareness searches, as well as for retrieving publications that may help to oppose or challenge the validity of new patent applications. The inclusion of Inspec Archive in Minesoft Inspec means that patent searchers have direct access to over 100 years worth of
18 Research Information DEC 2012/JAN 2013
quality prior art literature in the fields of engineering and technology. ‘Inspec includes the International Patent Classification (IPC) – a coding system to facilitate quick retrieval of relevant patents according to the area of technology that they address. Minesoft Inspec allows users to search by IPC code, and to visualise results according to an IPC breakdown.
‘Inspec is a great source of competitive intelligence for patent and intellectual property professionals, used to identify new players in the marketplace or find a new application of an existing technology. The Minesoft Inspec platform builds on this by offering the ability to monitor competitors or new technologies through regular alerts to keep updated on the latest developments.
‘The aim has been to use our expertise to provide an enriched search experience for Inspec, through intuitive user interfaces and features such as text and cluster
analysis
and precise search filters enable fast and accurate searching of Inspec for both professional researchers and end-users working in engineering and technology.’
Katy Wood
In addition to providing direct links to the original full text journal articles from across the engineering and technology worlds, Minesoft Inspec also offers the ability to monitor competitors and new technologies. Weekly alerts can be sent to users to keep them informed on the latest developments and ensure that intelligence is being shared.
www.researchinformation.info Specialised tools
and a collaborative folder system.
indexing
practitioners will use scholarly information for continuing professional development, to stay on top of the latest developments in their field. They also enjoy reading project papers “in the bath”; large projects are often what first attracted them into the profession.’ However, as Daniel Smith of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) pointed out, information behaviour varies by speciality. ‘The IT/communications area tends to use conference
proceedings a lot more than
anything else. These engineers also do almost all their research online but other specialities do less online. It’s easy to say “engineering” but every discipline is different.’
Academia and business There are also differences depending on whether engineers are working in a corporate or academic environment, although the boundaries between these are often blurred.
‘Academic engineers usually have strong connections with the business engineering world via cooperative ventures,’ observed Steven Petric, senior product manager for Elsevier’s Engineering Village A&I database. He noted that the needs of engineers in industry include easier access to references, data tables, and
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