TU Delft Library


Literature search

Do you wish to conduct a professional literature search before starting a new research project or product development? TU Delft Library can handle this for you. We offer a range of options:

Quick search

A quick search is a brief literature search intended to quickly explore a subject. It will give you the most recent literature references with regard to your subject. The quick search is confined to one relevant database, which is selected on the basis of the keywords that you provide. You also determine the number of references you want to receive. The quick search is not suitable for patents or chemical information.

Analysis on the basis of 1000 references

The basis for an analysis is a quick search (see above), but instead of a number of references we supply you with a statistical analysis based on 1000 of the most relevant hits from the search results. The result of the analysis is presented in four tables.

For articles:

  1. top 10 authors
  2. top 10 corporate sources
  3. top 10 journals
  4. top 10 publication years

For patents:

  1. top 10 inventors
  2. top 10 corporate sources
  3. top 10 countries for patent applications
  4. top 10 publication years

Made-to-measure literature search

Finally, we can carry out a literature search which is tailored exactly to your personal requirements. In an intake interview you consult with one of our information specialists to determine the most appropriate search terms. The search action is geared to your budget and results in a collection of relevant literature references. The search also explores the context of the research field and places this in a broader perspective.