Databases

The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a bibliographic database operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant. The ADS maintains three bibliographic databases containing more than 8.7 million records: Astronomy & Astrophysics, Physics and arXiv e-prints. The main body of data in the ADS consists of bibliographic records (including abstracts). Older astronomy literature has been digitized, in many cases going back to the first issue of the journals, and is available in full-text versions. The physics literature goes back for varying periods depending on the collaborative partnerships.

ADS Labs showcases search tools with added functionality to the standard ADS services. Currently these are:

Streamlined Search is simple one-box search that allows for a combination of author, title, year, and keyword searches. Identifiers such as bibcodes, arXiv IDs and DOIs are recognized as well. Advanced search options allow users to specify the desired search criteria.

Alpha Fulltext Search is the experimental interface for searching the collection of electronic fulltext at ADS, the Digital Library for Physics and Astronomy. It allows searching the full text of the scanned literature in ADS as well as a select portion of the current astronomical literature, including ApJ, ApJS, AJ, A&A, MNRAS, PASP, the last 15 years of Icarus, and all of arXiv.org.

NDT.net is the publisher of the Open Access «Ejournal of Nondestructive Testing and Ultrasonics». They also provide e-proceedings for more than 100 international NDT conferences and NDT techniques. Everything is accessible via NDT.net's database search. In NDT.net's discussion forums you can interact with other colleagues.

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides access to more than 15,000 print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs, as well as local, regional, national and international newspapers, legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, business information on international companies and executives. The information provided is international, English language titles are dominant, but you will also find Swiss, German and French titles. The full texts provided do not include pictures and graphs; the database is intended for text analysis.

Searching Nexis Uni needs some familiarization if you are not used to work with full text searches. Thus, we highly recommend to watch a video tutorial before you start searching.

The NIST Data Gateway provides easy access to many (currently over 80) of the NIST scientific and technical databases (list of free databases). These databases cover a broad range of substances and properties from many different scientific disciplines.

Quick List (selected):

• Atomic Spectra Database
• CODATA Fundamental Physical Constants
• NIST Chemistry WebBook
• Physical Reference Data

Nucleonica allows user-friendly access to the latest reference data from internationally evaluated nuclear data. A unique feature is the wide range of web-based nuclear science applications. Also provided is a variety of social networking tools for scientific collaboration.

Access to Nucleonica is based on individual usernames and passwords. Accounts for full premium access can be created individually. Users have then their «own» files within Nucleonica i.e. their own personal desktop, nuclide mixtures, graphics files, application configurations files etc.

Starting 2014, Nucleonica will be expanded by the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart Online (KNCO) giving you latest experimental data for ground states and isomers, including decay schemes for selected nuclides. Existing users of Nucleonica are automatically upgraded to KNCO. New users should register for free access. Your accounts will then be upgraded such that you have premium access and additionally KNCO access.