Bioengineering

Are you familiar with your topic?   If your answer is "no" or "maybe", then you need to do two things before starting your literature review: 

1. Fill in your knowledge gaps so you are able to effectively describe the topic in searches and be able recognize appropriate content in the search results.  
2. Find reference sources that contain definitions and descriptions in that area, so you'll quickly be able to refer to them as you are doing your literature review. 

Encyclopedias, handbooks and sometimes upper level textbooks provide background information summarizing the important points of a subject.   You should find and read this background information before you begin your literature review as it will help you determine the appropriate terminology for the search. As you are doing your literature search, you will come across terminology or topics that are unfamiliar to you; these resources will bring you up-to-speed, so bookmark this guide so you can quickly return to this page of resources.    

On this background information page, there are 3 sections: 

1. Where you can find introductory encyclopedia articles about the field of biomedical engineering 
2. What databases have introductory or background information about biomedical engineering 
3. What specific books, such as encyclopedia, handbooks and upper level textbooks, contain background information on topics within the field of biomedical engineering. 

The following encyclopedias have a biomedical engineering article that gives a short introduction to the field; the link for each encylopedia goes directly to the biomedical engineering article  ...

The following databases contain books and book chapters/sections that include background or introductory information about biomedical topics ...

The following encyclopedias and handbooks provide introductory or background articles about topics within the field of biomedical engineering.