Frequently Asked Questions

What is SciTech Connect?

SciTech Connect is a portal to free, publicly-available DOE-sponsored R&D results including technical reports, bibliographic citations, journal articles, conference papers, books, multimedia, software, and data information. SciTech Connect is a consolidation of two core DOE search engines, the Information Bridge and the Energy Citations Database. SciTech Connect incorporates all of the R&D information from these two products into one search interface. SciTech Connect was developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) to increase access to science, technology, and engineering research information from DOE and its predecessor agencies.

SciTech Connect Fact Card (461 KB)

Will SciTech Connect replace DOE Information Bridge and Energy Citations Database?

Yes. SciTech Connect will provide access to all the information previously available via DOE Information Bridge and the Energy Citations Database.

What is the content scope of SciTech Connect?

SciTech Connect contains all the full-text documents and citations previously found in Information Bridge and Energy Citations Database. Thus, SciTech Connect contains over sixty-five years of energy-related citations created and/or collected by OSTI.

SciTech Connect includes technical reports, bibliographic citations, journal articles, conference papers, books, multimedia, software, and data information sponsored by DOE through a grant, contract, cooperative agreement, or similar type of funding mechanism from the 1940s to today. This collection continues to grow as new scientific and technical information resulting from DOE research becomes available.

Included are over 2.75 million citations, including citations to 1.4 million journal articles, 471,000 of which have digital object identifiers (DOIs) linking to full-text articles on publishers' websites. SciTech Connect also has over 410,000 full-text DOE sponsored STI reports; most of these are post-1991, but close to 135,000 of the reports were published prior to 1990.

What can be found in each of the SciTech Connect categories: everything, electronic full-text, etc.?

Everything: Includes every record in SciTech Connect matching the search parameters, regardless of product type or associated full-text.

Electronic Full Text: Includes only records with directly available full-text. Some of the full-text documents are hosted internally at OSTI; however, a portion are linked to PDF documents housed at other organizations/institutional repositories. If you encounter an issue with a full-text document not opening properly or reaching an error page, please contact us.

Citations: Includes all records in SciTech Connect, regardless of type (journal article, technical report, dataset, etc.) that do not also currently have associated full-text. This may be because the full-text is unavailable from our office or, due to staff limitations, the record has not yet been digitized. Copyright issues may also influence full-text availability.

Datasets: Includes individual datasets from data centers, repositories, and other organizations funded by the Department of Energy. DOE Data Explorer is a data specific discovery tool from OSTI allowing for more data specific searching and for searching data collections.

Patents: Includes a curated list of issued patent records from DOE-funded organizations and researchers. The DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) obtains patent records funded by DOE directly from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; however, to ensure comprehensiveness, broad dissemination, and archival preservation, inventors funded by DOE may find it useful to submit information to OSTI through their particular STI submission channels. The DOE-funded, issued patents encompass the majority of the patent category. DOE-funded records can also be found within DOepatents, which offers more patent-specific searching capabilities.

In addition to the DOE-funded issued patent records, SciTech Connect also contains some historical patent content. This includes issued patents of interest to DOE researchers that have been funded by other organizations, issued international patents, and a small number of patent applications. These records are not discoverable in DOepatents and are accessible only in SciTech Connect.

Multimedia: Includes video and audio files produced by the DOE National Laboratories, other DOE research facilities, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). These are also discoverable in OSTI's Science Cinema product, which offers additional audio search capabilities.

Software: Includes contents from OSTI's legacy product the Energy Science and Technology Software Center, migrated or inclusion in SciTech in spring 2016. The scope of this collection includes software created and/or modified during work funded by DOE or during work carried out for others at DOE facilities.

What subject areas are covered in SciTech Connect?

Biology and Medicine
Chemistry
Energy Storage, Conversion, and Utilization
Engineering
Environmental Sciences
Fission and Nuclear Technologies
Fossil Fuels
Geosciences
Materials
Mathematics and Computing
National Defense
Physics
Power Generation and Distribution
Renewable Energy

How should I search ... Semantic or Term Search?

Semantic Search
Want to take advantage of the semantic search capability available at SciTech Connect? Select "Semantic" on the basic search form or in the advanced search "All fields" option. A semantic search technique called keyword-to-concept mapping is utilized, so your search term will be mapped to related scientific concepts allowing you to retrieve results related to your search term, but also to explore narrower and similar concepts. Boolean operators are ignored in the basic search so your term can be easily mapped to other concepts.

This technique is an expansion of your search and will generally return a larger number of results. This powerful and intuitive search can take several seconds to complete.

Using semantic search, a search for wind energy would be expanded to approximately 48 terms associated with wind and energy, including these:

wind power

renewable energy

wind turbines

energy efficiency

energy conservation

geothermal energy

Selecting the semantic search option applies only to the terms entered in the basic search keywords field, or in the advanced search "All fields" field. Other fields apply their supplied query terms directly, and allow boolean operators to be used.

Term Search
Term search applies the provided search terms exactly as entered, with no concept mapping, and allows use of boolean operators. If you are searching for a very specific title, author, or keyword, the term search may be more appropriate.

Can I download information from SciTech Connect?

Yes. If the item is available electronically, a full-text icon will be shown at the right of the result. Items in SciTech Connect are publicly-available and free. There are also various citation export options available on the bibliographic details screen for each result.

... but I'd like to download a bulk number of records?

Great! We're so excited that you're interested in using SciTech's content. If downloading directly from SciTech's search results pages does not meet your needs, we currently offer two different formats of bulk downloads, XML and MARC (only full-text records). If you have any questions about uploading them to your own library database, please Contact Us.

How do I register for a SciTech Connect account? What are the benefits of being a registered user?

To create a SciTech Connect Account, select Create Account and enter the requested information. You are required to provide your email address and create a password. Each account must be registered with a unique email address. After registration, you will be taken to your account management screen.

A SciTech Connect account allows you to save documents, save searches and categorize them into lists, export bibliographies, and create alerts.

Does SciTech Connect offer an Alerts service?

Yes. You can create a SciTech Connect account, which will allow you to save and categorize documents, save searches, export bibliographies, and create content alerts. The search results retrieved by the alerts service will be presented exactly as your original search was designed, with your chosen result facet (Everything, Electronic Full Text, Citations, Multimedia, Datasets, Software) displayed.

Can I change how my search results are displayed? What is the difference between the 'Basic results view' and the 'Detailed results view'?

Yes. At any time, you can change how your results are displayed by selecting the "Switch to ..." link at the top right of your results screen. The Basic view will display the title, author, publication date, and description in a list format. The Detailed view will display fields of your choosing in a more compact, tabular format. The Detailed view allows for extensive customization of the results display.

If you have created a SciTech Account, then your results display will default to the selected view in your account settings. You can change your default view by logging in to your account and selecting the basic or detailed view.

Can I get a full-text copy of one of the citations I've found in SciTech Connect?

The short answer is maybe. OSTI holds an extensive paper vault of DOE sponsored STI that have not yet been digitized. If you find a citation in SciTech that you wish to have as full-text, please check the document availability link at the right side of the citation page. You will find instructions as to how to request more information or start the process of obtaining full-text materials.

I see software was added to SciTech Connect...

What kinds of software are available?
The contents of the Energy Science and Technology Software Center (ESTSC) have now been added to the SciTech Connect's collection. Scientific and technical software packages in the ESTSC collection can be used for a variety of applications. In many cases, the packages are available in multiple platforms, such as PC, workstation, or supercomputer, to allow the software to be used on different computers and operating systems.

Who can purchase software?
Most scientific and technical software available from the ESTSC has unlimited availability and is available to all requesters. Copyrighted software inquiries may be responded to by ESTSC staff or may be referred to the copyright holder. Foreign requests may be referred to the DOE Headquarters office for review.

How are orders processed?
Orders are received by telephone (865-576-2606), fax (865-576-6436), E-mail: (), or written request addressed to the Energy Science and Technology Software Center, P.O. Box 62, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 37831.

Under normal circumstances, the Center will begin to process the order for software the day it is received, if payment and site license agreement are in order. In the event that forms are not in order, the ESTSC will contact the requester. No further action will be taken until all required information and/or payment is received.

The software package is normally disseminated within three to five working days after the order has been fully processed and is normally delivered by first class U.S. mail. If requested, your account will be charged for other delivery methods chosen.

Full payment and a license agreement for the software ordered must be received by the Center before an order is processed. Payment must be made to the Center in U.S. currency using financial instruments drawn on U.S. banks. The Center also accepts, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Private Issue, and Bravo.

SciTech and ORCID Integration...

In June 2016, OSTI added a mechanism for users to add their works in SciTech Connect directly to their ORCID Works profile. This feature also extends to E-Link in that users may choose to give OSTI future permission to update their Works anytime a record is submitted via E-Link including their ORCID iD.

See ORCID FAQ for more information.

For additional assistance, Contact Us.