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Electrical Engineering

A guide to Electrical Engineering resources including research papers, articles, data, material properties, codes, standards, patents, & product information.

Finding Standards

Standards are formally published documents that establish consistent technical requirements for products, practices, methods, or operations, thereby ensuring uniformity, quality, and safety. By themselves, standards are not legally enforceable in most cases. When standards are incorporated into a legally enforceable contract, or enacted into a law or regulation by government, they are generally referred to as codes.

Alphabetical Listing of Standards Databases

  • ASSIST-Quick Search
    • Free or Open Access Resource. Unrestricted public access.

    ASSIST-Quick Search is a public website that lets users search for defense and federal specifications and standards, military handbooks, commercial item descriptions, data item descriptions, MS detail drawings, Qualified Product Lists (QPLs), and related technical documents prepared in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Defense Standardization Program (DSP). In most cases, users may download documents that have been cleared for public release.

  • ASTM - American Society for Testing and Materials
    • Free to search. Full-text content likely to be paywalled or restricted to Illinois Tech
    ASTM is one of the worlds leading developers of engineering, industrial, and product safety standards.
    NOTE: Illinois Tech does NOT have a subscription to this database & therefore no downloads are available. However, students may join ASTM for FREE and in that way gain access to ASTM standards and other materials. Just follow the "Get Involved" link on ASTM's website.
    For more standards access, the library provides a print copy of the complete ASTM standards. Also, any ASTM standards referenced by the international building code can be accessed in the MADCAD database.
  • Ethics Code Collection
    • Free or Open Access Resource. Unrestricted public access.

    The Ethics Codes Collection is the largest online repository of ethics codes and guidelines in the world. With over 2500 individual codes and guidelines from over 1500 organizations around the world, including current and historical codes dating to 1887, it is maintained by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at Illinois Institute of Technology.

  • IEEE Xplore - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
    • Access restricted to Illinois Tech students, faculty, & staff
    Best Bet Featured

    IEEE Xplore is a database providing access to cutting-edge technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science, and related fields. It offers full-text access to millions of documents from IEEE journals, conferences, standards, and other publications, making it an invaluable resource for engineers, researchers, and students seeking the latest advancements in technology and applied sciences. 

  • UpCodes
    • Mostly free or Open Access. Some content may be paywalled or restricted to Illinois Tech
    UpCodes provides a free platform to access building codes for all 50 states as well as the international codes. The free version allows access to all codes. Searching and advanced functionality is limited to an individual paid subscription.
  • W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
    • Free or Open Access Resource. Unrestricted public access.
    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community dedicated to developing Web standards. W3C standards define an Open Web Platform for application development that has the unprecedented potential to enable developers to build rich interactive experiences, powered by vast data stores, that are available on any device.