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Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering

Use this guide to find books, articles, reports and websites related to naval architecture and ocean engineering

Getting Help for your Research Paper

Schedule a meeting with your librarian

Here's a link to my appointment calendar. Find a time that works for you and book it.

Keep track of your research

A document like this research log template can help you stay organized with your research. It can also help you extract the most relevant information from a paper efficiently.

Read Efficiently

Check out these tips on how to read a technical or scholarly paper. Don't worry, you won't spoil the ending if you skip around as you read.

Key Resources

Help, I can't access this article!

Try these steps if you find an article or book and can't read it.

  • Submit an interlibrary loan (ILL) request. Watch the video below for more information on how to get started.
    A blue circle with the text Interlibrary Loan under it
  • ILL is a service through which Nimitz Library obtains articles not in our collection from other libraries for your use. You must be on the yard or connected via VPN/VDI to submit a request.
     
  • Email the Engineering Librarian for help finding the full text of an article or book.

I Have a Paper, Now What?

The structure of a paper can tell us where to find certain information. Many research articles follow a similar structure.

Introduction

What did the authors do (big picture)?

Why did they do their research?

Methods

How did they do their research, often step by step?

Results

What happened when they did their research?

Discussion/Conclusion

What did they learn from their research? How did they interpret the results?

Tips for Reading

First, consider your purpose for reading—what information are you looking for? Your research log can help answer that question.

Then examine the title, authors and publication date.

Next, read the abstract and keywords.

If the article looks promising, skim the parts most relevant for your purposes. This will usually include the discussion/conclusion, introduction, results and related figures. The reference list helps point you to other relevant papers. 

An efficient way to approach an article is to read the sections out of order and focus on the parts most relevant to your purpose for reading. Don’t forget to take notes!

If the article doesn’t look promising, skip it!