Academic Search Engines

The basic and widely used search engines used for academic purposes are:

Google Scholar
(http://scholar.google.com/)

Take alook at some features of Google scholar search;

• Find papers, abstracts and citations
• Locate the complete paper through patron's library or on the web
• Learn about key papers in any area of research
• Google Scholar strongly recommends indexing full-text versions of the work to be submitted
• Indexes magazines that are suitable primarily for a scholarly audience
• Google Scholar indexes only scholarly articles. For textbooks and monographs Google Book
  Search can be used
• Indexes Research Articles of the Professional society
• Indexing of Searchable PDF, HTML, PostScript, compressed PostScript (ps.gz), and
  compressed PDF (pdf.gz)

Mendeley
(https://www.mendeley.com)

Read, organize and cite all of your research from one library. You can build a searchable library that makes it easy to find, read and cite papers.

Scirus (Scirus has retired)

Scirus is the most comprehensive science-specific search engine on the Internet. Driven by the latest search engine technology.Main features of scirus are;

· Searches the whole web including access-controlled sites
· Targets scientific information only
· Covers more than 250 million science related pages
· Finds more peer-reviewed articles than any other search engine
· Reads non-text files in PDF, Postscript and others
· Find the latest reports, peer-reviewed articles, patents, pre prints and journals that other search engines miss.

Refseek
(https://www.refseek.com)

RefSeek offer a very strong human-powered directory along with search when needed. Make it so the directory answers about 80% of the needs of their target market and let the search handle the other 20%.Simply serach Refseek about Nanotechnology. The first two results are from Wikipedia and from Encarta. Shows  2,313,454 results for nanotechnology. You van Narrow your search: applications,companies,nature,national initiative,research,top 100 companies;using Narrow your search on the right side of the search result page.Some related images are also displayed at the bottom of the right pane.

InfoMine
(http://www.infomine.com/)

InfoMine provides comprehensive information on mining, the mining industry, mining technology and mineral exploration.

ProQuest
(http://www.proquest.com/)

ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as CSA™, UMI®, Chadwyck-Healey™, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.