Frequently asked questions
We have put together a list of answers to frequently asked questions about the IET Digital Library. If your query is not answered below, please contact us.
- I am a new IET Digital Library user
What is available on the IET Digital Library?- Do I need to register or sign-in to access the site?
- Can I get access to any content for free?
- Do I need a subscription to use this site?
- How much does it cost to subscribe?
- What's included as part of my subscription?
- How do I subscribe?
- Can I purchase an individual article online?
- Who do I contact if I am having technical problems with my access?
- Which browsers do you support?
- What's your commitment to accessibility?
- What is your policy on privacy and use of cookies?
- Using the IET Digital Library
How do I search for content?- How do I find articles by a particular author?
- What wildcards does your search engine support?
- Can I save searches?
- What's RSS and how do I use it?
- What are social bookmarks and how do I use them?
- What are favourites and how do I use them?
- What type of email alerts are available?
- I am an IET Member
Can I log in with my IET website username and password?- Will I receive a discount for subscriptions and individual article purchases?
- Can I access Engineering & Technology magazine on the IET Digital Library?
I am a new IET Digital Library user
What is available on the IET Digital Library?
The IET Digital Library unlocks an unsurpassed body of work featuring more than 100,000 technical papers and around 5,000 eBooks chapters from 1994 onwards. Comprising all IET journals, eBooks, magazines, conference publications and seminar digests, the IET Digital Library provides users with access to a wealth of essential engineering intelligence.
Journals
Featuring a portfolio of 24 separate research titles, alongside the highly sited Electronics Letters and online-only Micro and Nano Letters, this range welcomes the introduction of our new Healthcare Technology Letters journal in January 2014.
In addition to the research and letters journals, the IET launched its first fully gold, open access journal, The Journal of Engineering. Also known as JoE, this is a broad-scope megajournal focusing on scientifically sound research over a wide range of topic areas.
With the majority of our journals indexed in major databases, you can find a full list of where all the IET journals are indexed here.
For a full range of all IET journals, please download the catalogue below.
• Download the 2015 IET Journals Catalogue
• Download the 2015 IET Inspec and Magazine Pricing
eBooks
Gain access to an acclaimed collection of over 400 eBooks available across 11 specialist subject areas, covering all key areas of engineering and technology. Available to search by chapter or full text, IET eBooks provide the ultimate point of reference for international researchers, professionals and students.
Do I need to register or sign-in to access the site?
You don't need to register or sign-in to explore the IET Digital Library, but if you want access to the full range of services – including setting up free email alerts, and saving and purchasing content - it is recommended. Please refer to our Registration page for further information.
Can I get access to any content for free?
Content that is freely available is indicated with a 'Free content' icon as shown below:
All other content is available either by subscription to the journal or book, or by purchasing individual articles using a credit / debit card.
▲ Back to top
Do I need a subscription to use this site?
No, anyone can search and browse the IET Digital Library for free and you can also purchase individual articles, eBooks and eBook chapters in cases where you don't have a subscription.
How much does it cost to subscribe?
Please refer to our pricing for 2014 page for full details of institutional subscriptions. For individual/personal subscriptions, please see our pricing guide below.
• Download the IET Journals 2014 Price List
What's included as part of my subscription?
IET books and IET journals are available to purchase in a range of subscription and perpetual access collections; For further details, contact us or take a look at;
In these catalogues you will find details of the IET Journals titles and packages that are available on a subscription basis during 2014, the range of book titles that are due for publication and which are already available and the pricing for perpetual access to our eBooks collections and subject collections.
Additionally, subscriptions to the IET Journals Archive are available, providing access to the complete collection of research journals and magazines from 1872-1993.
How do I subscribe?
Please refer to our How to Order page for information on how to subscribe.
▲ Back to top
Can I purchase an individual article online?
Yes, if you don't have a personal or institutional subscription, you can purchase individual articles or chapters for your research. The price will be displayed above the abstract. Please refer to our Pay per view page for further information.
▲ Back to top
Who do I contact if I am having technical problems with my access?
Please see our Contacts page for further information.
▲ Back to top
Which browsers do you support?
We support the following browsers on Windows and Macintosh platforms:
- IE 7.0 and above
- Firefox 3.0 and above
You should find that all pages are functional in all of the above browsers. However, no two browsers or different versions of a single browser will render all pages identically.
▲ Back to top
What's your commitment to accessibility?
The IET is committed to providing a website that is accessible to all users. Please refer to our Accessibility page for further information.
▲ Back to top
What is your policy on privacy and use of cookies?
Please refer to our Privacy statement. Cookies are used to help provide the users with the best possible online experience, such as remembering the user session and tracking website performance. The IET informs users of its use of cookies when they first visit the site. For more information, please refer to the IET cookies statement.
▲ Back to top
Using the IET Digital Library
How do I search for content?
You can either use the quick search box at the top or the Advanced Search page.
- Using quick search, keywords entered in this box will search article titles, keywords, abstracts, full texts, authors, ISBNs, ISSNs and DOIs. You can also use the adjacent dropdown to choose whether you want to search all of the site's content or just a specific section e.g. just books or just journals.
- The platform's 'Advanced Search' page, which is also linked to from the top of the site, offers individual fields for searching by keyword, for an author or for a publication title, ISSN, ISBN or DOI. The keyword field allows you to choose whether to search for all of the keywords, some of them or for an exact phrase. There's also a field for excluding terms from your search. You can then limit the search by subject, content type or date and control how the results are sorted – the default is by relevance but you can also sort them by recency or alphabetically. Once the search results are displayed, you can filter the search by a range of criteria, such as publication date, content type or subject category. If you select any of these filters, then the listing will change to show the items you’ve selected. You can choose how many results are displayed and how they are sorted (e.g. by relevance or by date). There are also options to either change your search terms or to apply additional terms through the 'Advanced Search' page.
How do I find articles by a particular author?
You can simply enter the author name into the quick search field. Alternatively, there is a specific field for authors on the advanced search page. When dealing with common names it is advisable to combine this search with another term, such as a word from the article title or publication name.
▲ Back to top
Which wildcards does your search engine support?
- Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases. 'energy gap' might give you results from various scientific and technical disciplines. Apply Boolean operators with two or more phrases to restrict the search e.g. 'energy gap' and 'doped semiconductors'.
- Use asterisks to create wildcard searches. So transport* will return results containing transport, transporting, and transportation.
Can I save searches?
Yes. Whenever you conduct a search, you should see an option to save it on the right hand column of the search results page. You can also create an email alert to be notified when new content relevant to your search becomes available. Alternatively, all searches conducted within a particular session are stored in the search history, which you can find under 'My Account'. You can permanently save any searches from the history as well as creating alerts from them.
▲ Back to top
What's RSS and how do I use it?
RSS ('Really Simple Syndication') feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. You can get the latest updates in one place, as soon as they are published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feeds from. You can access RSS feeds directly from the content pages on the IET Digital Library - the orange RSS icon will appear when a feed is available in the upper right of the page. We offer a range of feeds such as updates for specific types of content like books and journals available from their index pages and updates for a particular title, such as new issues of a particular journal, which is available from any page applying to that particular title.
Note: Chrome users will need to use the plugin (such as RSS subscription extension from Google) to preview the feed content and subscribe.
▲ Back to top
What are social bookmarks and how do I use them?
Every content page on the site includes links to a range of social networking websites. These sites allow you to share pages that you find interesting with your colleagues and contacts. All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register. Once you have registered you can begin sharing links. When you click on the logo for a social network, a pop-up will appear that enables you to sign in to the third-party site (if you're not already signed in), and then share the link.
▲ Back to top
What are favourites and how do I use them?
Favourites are a personalised list of all the things you have found interesting and would like to come back to for future reference, or would like to consider purchasing at a later point. A favourites list will be created for you at the point where you register on the site. To add items, browse the site and when you find something you'd like to add, click the "Add to favourites" button, which you'll find under the 'Add to Cart' button on the right-hand side of each product information page.
▲ Back to top
What type of email alerts are available?
You can create alerts to be notified when new content is added to the site, when new content is added for a particular subject area and when new content is added to a title e.g. a new journal issue. You can also create alerts around particular searches for when new content is later added that is relevant to your search query. Please refer to our Alerts page for further information.
▲ Back to top
I am an IET Member
Can I log in with my IET website username and password?
If you are an IET member, or have already been registered with one of the IET's family of websites, you can simply use your existing IET username and password to access your personal account on the IET Digital Library.
Will I receive a discount for subscriptions and individual article purchases?
Please see our Resources for IET members page for further information.
▲ Back to top
Can I access Engineering & Technology magazine on the IET Digital Library?
IET Members can read back issues of Engineering & Technology magazine free of charge via the IET Digital Library.
▲ Back to top