Whichever aspect of Chemical Engineering you're studying, the library has books, journals, and databases to suit your needs.

Welcome to our guide to resources for Chemical Engineering courses. As the Learning and Research Librarian for Engineering, I am here to support you in your learning and assignments.

Ruth Collingwood - Learning & Research Librarian for Engineering

LibrarySearch is CCCU’s library discovery tool and a key resource for you. It allows you to easily search across library resources, including books, e-books and journal articles. Many of the resources available via Library Search are not freely available on the web, and rather than worrying about paywalls, it automatically limits your search to full-text. Remember to sign in to access all the resources.

Google Scholar is also an excellent resource. It can be used to search for scholarly information on the internet, including ebooks, journal articles and conference papers. It can also be linked to library holdings, showing you where CCCU has paid for access to a resource and allowing you to link through.

Searching LibrarySearch alongside Google Scholar for your assignment topics is a good place to start.

You can also access databases individually for more in-depth searching or for specific types of resources such as statistics, reports or documentaries (please see under Databases below for some recommendations)

You can use LibrarySearch to search for the books you need. Just type in a few words from the title plus the surname of the author(s) into the search box. If you get stuck – please ask!

We use the Dewey Decimal System to classify the books so it’s easier to find them. Each number refers to a different subject area. In Augustine House, the lowest numbers are on the first floor and the highest numbers are on the third floor.

You will find the majority of the chemical engineering book collection on the second and third floors at Augustine House:

  • 510-519 Mathematics
  • 530 Physics
  • 540 Chemistry
  • 660-669 Chemical Engineering

Remember to check the different areas housing the 7-day loan (open shelves) and 4-week loans (moving shelves).

The library also has hundreds of e-books for engineering. To search for e-books in LibrarySearch, limit your results in the left-hand pane of the search screen to e-books and click on the link to CCCU e-book to download or read online.

You can browse printed copies of journals on the second floor of Augustine House in the Silent Zone – they are shelved in alphabetical order of the title of the journal. These are for use in the library only. However, most journals are also available online. Online journals relevant to chemical engineering include:

  • AIChE Journal
  • Chemical Engineering Journal
  • Chemical Engineering Science
  • Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification
  • Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
  • Journal of Physical Chemistry parts A, B and C
  • Journal of Process Control
  • New Scientist
  • Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP)
  • Process Engineering 

You can see which journals are available online by using LibrarySearch. Make sure you log in first! (You will need your university username and password). Try entering the title of a journal into the search box or using the “Find e-journals by title” link. You can also browse e-journals by subject, using Browzine. This software allows you to read a journal like an e-book, so you can look through the whole journal rather than just individual articles. There is an app so you can use it easily on your phone or other mobile device.

You can find individual journal articles to read online by doing a quick search in LibrarySearch. Try searching for a key word or phrase connected with your research topic, e.g. “heat transfer”. See our quick guide for more information.

Open access journals

The Directory of Open Access Journals includes journals such as International Journal of Industrial ChemistryMDPI supports open scientific exchange, providing access to in the sciences.  Open access journals are usually scholarly, but the difference is, the publishers of these journals believe in making their research freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This means that you (or your institution) don’t have to have a subscription to the journal to be able to read the articles they publish.

There are lots of databases that contain journal articles about chemical engineering, and they are all available via Library Search – just click on the “Find databases” link in the left-hand menu and you will see an alphabetical list. Browse the list until you find the one you want. Remember to sign in to Library Search to get full access to the journal articles.

The most useful databases for your subject include:

American Chemical Society Legacy Archives contains all titles, volumes, issues, and articles published by the American Chemical Society from 1879 to 1995. There are 22 journals, 11,117 issues, and 464,233 articles in the fields of chemistry and related sciences such as biological and medicinal chemistry, polymer science and materials science. Titles include some of the most highly cited journals in the field, such as Chemical Reviews, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and the Journal of Organic Chemistry.

British Standards Online: British Standards Online (BSOL) contains British standards and international and European standards that have been adopted as British standards.

Business Source Premier a major business research database, providing access to over 2,100 full text journals covering various subject areas, including Engineering. Additional full-text, non-journal content includes market research reports, industry reports, country reports, company profiles and SWOT analyses. (Guide to Business Source Premier)

Engineering Case Studies Online: Engineering Case Studies Online contains a wide range of video and text material focusing on engineering failures and successes. At completion, the collection will contain 250 hours and 50,000 pages of quality documentaries, accident reports, experiments, visualizations, case studies, lectures and interviews from leading engineering institutions around the world.

Engineering Village: Search several engineering databases with multiple search options, with journals, standards, property search and materials, equations, conference proceedings, and more. (Guide to Engineering Village)

Espacenet – European Patent Office: Index to more than 120 million patent documents worldwide from 1836 onwards. Full-text access to British patents from 1859. Full-text access to patents from other countries includes US from 1836 and various starting dates for EPO, WIPO, France, Germany and Switzerland.

Europe PMC: a repository, providing access to worldwide life sciences articles, books, patents and clinical guidelines. Europe PMC provides links to relevant records in databases such as Uniprot, European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), Protein Data Bank Europe (PDBE) and BioStudies.

GreenFILE: offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.

IEL Online (IEEE Xplore): Full-text access to the entire IEEE and IET collection of journals, magazines, and conference proceedings, plus all active and historical IEEE standards.

Knovel:Chemistry and Chemical Engineering package includes books, technical information, analytical tools and interactive equations. (Guide to Knovel)

Lens Patent Search: Discovery and analytics tools on a comprehensive collection of patent literature with citation indexing.

New Scientist provides access to the articles from this weekly international science magazine. Articles are grouped by broad field or topic, and you can browse by date or search for a specific subject. It also includes lists of jobs and careers advice information. [Access via LibrarySearch and then choose OpenAthens link on the New Scientist page].

ScienceDirect searches across 2,500 peer-reviewed titles – or over 9.5 million articles. This is a good source for journal articles in engineering, covering chemical engineering, chemistry, energy, and materials science.

Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources. With over 22,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, Scopus offers researchers a quick, easy and comprehensive resource to support research, including in the fields of engineering, science and technology.

SpringerProtocols 1980-2012 a large database of reproducible laboratory protocols (over 40,000) in biomedicine and life sciences, enabling users to find the right protocol for a lab set-up.

Web of Science (WoS) A multi-disciplinary service, where you can search for articles from over 18,000 journals in a wide range of science fields. You can access full-text journal articles, if the Library has an active subscription. (Guide to Web of Science)

Wiley Online Library searches across a multi-disciplinary collection of journals covering industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, mathematics and materials science.

There are a lot of brilliant websites that may be relevant to your studies, but there are also many that are not, so it is essential to evaluate the material carefully to decide whether they are scholarly enough.

The following websites are a good starting point:

ChemSpider a free-to-access collection of compound data from across the web, provided by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). It aggregates chemical structures and their associated information into a single searchable repository. A range of guides are available plus the RSC YouTube.

ChemSynthesis a freely accessible database of chemicals, containing substances with their synthesis references and physical properties such as melting point, boiling point and density. There are currently more than 40,000 compounds and more than 45,000 synthesis references in the database.

HSE the website of the Health and Safety Executive. Find news and guidance on topics such as machine safety.

IChemE the global professional membership organisation for those working in the chemical, process and bioprocess industries. Offers the option of student membership giving access to a range of information resources.

Intellectual Property Office this is official UK government body responsible for intellectual property rights. Find information on patents, designs, trade marks and copyright.

LearnChemistry an RSC resource for learners and teachers of chemistry at all levels, including higher education.

National Chemical Database Service brings together tools and resources for UK researchers in chemistry and related fields. All web-based services are freely accessible from any UK academic network.

NIST Chemistry WebBook created and maintained by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, this online resource provides chemical and physical property data on over 40,000 compounds.

Royal Society of Chemistry the website for the world’s leading chemical community, providing access to information and resources, including educational resources, careers information and networking opportunities.

TOXLINE a freely available bibliographic database with citations from specialized journals and other sources, from the 1840s to the current day. It covers the biochemical, pharmacological, physiological, and toxicological effects of drugs and other chemicals.

WolframAlpha search on the public website to see chemical names and formulas, 3D structures and basic/gas/thermodynamic/safety/toxicity properties. Select the Engineering option to explore data, details, formulae etc. on energy data, control systems, fluid mechanics and steam tables amongst other topics.

Box of Broadcasts: On-demand TV and radio service for education. Allows staff and students to record programmes and create clips from over 60 free-to-air channels, both TV and radio, and search an archive of over 2 million broadcasts. If you’ve seen or heard something on TV or radio that you think would be useful to your learning or teaching, there’s a good chance you can access it via B.o.B. Access within the UK only (Guide to B.o.B)

EU Screen Portal: Offers free access to thousands of archival audio-visual items from across Europe, bringing together clips that provide an insight into the social, cultural, political, and economic events that have shaped the 20th and 21st centuries.

Kanopy: Access to a large, curated catalogue of over 30,000 educational documentaries and classic films. A wide range of subject coverage (e.g. Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, Health and Sciences). Watch anytime, anywhere and on any device including via media streaming apps.

Image shows evaluating sources: the CRAAP test - check for currency, relevance, accuracy, authority and purpose of resources before you use them.
Evaluating resources: The CRAAP test
Ruth Collingwood
Library and Research Librarian