Useful General Research
Links
for Computer Science Researchers
A number of resources are useful for Computer
Science research. This page provides links to resources relevant to:
- finding standards,
- locating academic papers
and conference proceedings,
- looking for patents,
- finding academic
technical reports,
- finding
industrial technical reports,
- Computer
Science Departments with Distributed Systems research groups,
- finding computer science
researchers,
- online dictionaries,
- using dictionaries of
computing terminology,
- searching electronic catalogues of
local (Cambridge) libraries,
- general internet search
engines
- free file space (for storing
your backups), and
- miscellaneous resources
See also my page on Internet Application Development which
includes resources for practical
Internet development, finding industry
magazine articles, and finding
software.
Finding
Standards
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
standards - recommendations and working drafts. Including standards and working
drafts relating to XML, XSL, XPointer, XLink, Xetera (Xcuse the pun).
- Internet Standards (STDs)
and Request For Comments (RFCs). Includes standards (STDs) and RFCs on major
protocols such as:
- HTTP 1.1 (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol, RFC2068),
- SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - sending emails,
RFC821/STD10 and RFC1869),
- POP3 (Post Office Protocol - receiving emails,
RFC1939/STD53),
- MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions,
RFC2045-2049, RFC1524),
- URI's (URLs and URNs: uniform identifiers for locating
globally distributed resources, RFC2396), and
- DNS (Domain Name Service, RFC1034 and RFC1035).
- NTP (Network Time Protocol for clock synchronisation to
within 1 second of absolute atomic time, RFC1305)
- IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol: search and
manipulate messages and mailboxes on a server, RFC 1730). Note that IMAP is not
the same as Microsoft's MAPI, which the Free Online Dictionary of Computing (indexed at www.dict.org) defines as 'A messaging architecture and a
client interface component for applications such as electronic mail, scheduling,
calendaring and document management. As a messaging architecture, MAPI provides a
consistent interface for multiple application programs to interact with multiple messaging
systems across a variety of hardware platforms...MAPI provides cross platform support
through such industry standards as SMTP, X.400 and Common Messaging Calls'.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum's book 'Computer Networks' (Prentice Hall) provides
useful summary information about many of the above-mentioned Internet standards.
- The Workflow
Management Coalition (WfMC), which is part of the Association for Information and
Image Management (AIIM), defines standards related to workflow.
- Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF): including Request For Comments
(RFCs) and Internet Draft (abstracts).
Note that, while RFC's are suitable reference material, Internet Drafts should not
be used as reference material.
- International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) including ITU-T (formely CCITT). Requires subscription.
Finding
Academic Journal Papers and Conference Proceedings
- The
Computer Science Bibliography: One of the best resources for finding the citation and
paper that you need
- CiteSeer - An
excellent source of references, a must for every Computer Science researcher. Look up
citations by author, find related papers (e.g. papers that cite the current author or that
the current author cites, etc.). It is also possible to subscribe to a tracking
service whereby you will be informed whenever articles in which you are interested are
cited in the future.
- Look in the Directory of important articles in each
subject area for the most cited papers (i.e. the seminal articles) in each sub-field
of Computer Science.
- For Graduate Students at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory:
The Scientific Periodicals Library (SPL) in the New Museums Site at the
University of Cambridge will locate almost any conference or journal article at no
charge for graduate students at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory. Turnaround time
is apparently 2-3 weeks and papers are sent directly to the student's pigeonhole.
- Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM).
- IEEE Computer Society.
- USENIX (Advanced
Computing Systems Organisation, organises a variety of prominent conferences)
- The USENIX
Online Library of Conference Proceedings and Symposia contains abstracts
to papers which are available to everyone. Full papers over a year old are available free
to everyone. Full papers less then a year old are available only to USENIX members.
- Lecture Notes in
Computer Science (electronic version)
- Springer-Verlag's LINK Online Library. Includes access
for registered users to the Lecture Notes in Computer Science,
as well as a variety of Computer Science journals such as VLDB Journal
(Very Large Databases), Distributed Computing, and others.
[Some articles can be accessed without being a registered user.] Although the
search doesn't seem to be very effective, you can also try and search the Lecture Notes in
Computer Science using Spring-Verlag LINK
Online Library PowerSearch or Online Library GlobalSearch (which searches the full text
of articles). NOTE: You will need to change the subject area
to 'Computer Science' in the relevant drop-down-list box in the search, otherwise
you will not get any Computer Science related articles.
- Trier University's Computer Science Bibliography
[also known as 'the DBLP Bibliography'] (citation links). This page also contains
links to other digital libraries and to a comprehensive list of computer science
societies/organisations.
- The HyperText
Bibiliography Project at MIT
- The World
Wide Web Virtual Library
- INSPEC:
Computer Periodicals Database (requires an ATHENS password to
login*)
- Networked Computer Science
Technical Reference Library (NCSTRL)
- Unified
Computer Science Technical Report Index (UCSTRI). This searches a huge variety
of ftp archives containing technical reports. The interface to UCSTRI is very simple
- merely type in keywords in the edit box at the very top of the page.
- The New Zealand Digital Library
has Computer Science Bibliographies and Computer Science Technical Reports
- Internet Society (ISOC)
Hypermedia Proceedings
- IDEAL Online Journals
(requires an ATHENS password to login*)
- Digital Library for
Journals (guest accesss to abstracts only and at non-peak times only)
- Elsevier Science Journals
- MIMAS Web of Science
(citation database)
- The excellent NISS EBSCO Masterfile. Choose
'Engineering and Technology' and then continue with your search.
- NISS Library and
Information Services. Helps you find catalogues, references, bibliographic and
directory material in your field.
- COPACS (all UK libraries
from one search engine)
- BIDS (bibliographic
service). Requires an ATHENS password to login*
- INGENTA (formerly
Journals Online). Requires an ATHENS password to login*
- Online Computer
Library Centre Reference Services, including
- FirstSearch
(to find books, articles, films, computer software). Requires authorization, but I don't
know how you go about getting that from your library.
- Electronic
Collections Online (to find articles and citations). Requires authorization, but
I don't know how you go about getting that from your library.
- The Directory of
Computing Science Journals. A very comprehensive list of Computing Science
Journals.
- OOPSLA (Object Oriented
Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications Conference)
- International Federation for
Information Processing (IFIP)
* ATHENS passwords are
available to students of UK Higher Education institutions, usually from your University
library.
Looking for
Patents
Finding Academic Technical Reports
Finding Industrial Technical Reports
Distributed Systems Research Groups in Computer Science Departments
This list is certainly not comprehensive and contains places
where I have found useful information to date.
Finding
Computer Science Researchers
Looking for a person doing research in your
area? The following resources may be useful to you:
- Hypatia (Directory
of Computer Science Research Workers)
Online
Dictionaries
Dictionaries of Computing Terminology
Searching
Electronic Catalogues of Local Libraries (Cambridge)
Book Publishers and Book Stores
Note that membership of certain organisations such as the
ACM, IEEE, or USENIX may entitle you to special discounts when purchasing directly
from certain publishers. Refer to your membership information for further details.
General
Internet Search Engines
Free
File Space
Students at the University of Cambridge can apply to
Computing Services for a free account on the Pelican server, to use for storing backups of
important files. As an added precaution (although not to be used as a
substitute for Pelican) the following free online services are also available:
Miscellaneous
Computer Science Research Resources
Contact Information
| Home Page: |
Alan Abrahams'
Home Page at University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory |
| Email: |
alan dot abrahams at cl dot cam dot ac dot uk
or alanabrahams at hotmail dot com |
| If you would like to
contribute hyperlinks or resource information relevant to this topic for inclusion in this
page, please do not hesitate to contact me. All references are greatly appreciated. |