Library: Literature Searches, Surveys and Reviews: Where to Search

Where to Search

All Subjects

Alcohol Use

Behavior

Bicycles

Biophysics

PubMed–MEDLINE

Bridges

Buses

Business

Civil Engineering

Climate Change

Commuting

Construction

Crashes

Directories

Distraction

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
PubMed–MEDLINE
PsycINFO
TRID

Drivers

Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
Highway Statistics
PubMed–MEDLINE
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
Research In Progress (RiP)
Safety Data.gov
State Data System
State Traffic Safety Information
TRID

Economic and Social factors

National Transportation Statistics
State Transportation Statistics
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Transportation Statistics Annual Report
TranStats
TRID

Economics

IATA
Life-Cycle Benefit–Cost Analysis Model
Measurement of Government Transportation Financial Statistics
TRID

Education and Training

ERIC
LTAP Clearinghouse

Engineering

Environment

Air Pollutant Emissions Trends
Annual Energy Review
ASCE Library
CAFE Fuel Economy
Compendex
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management
Google Scholar
IHS Fairplay Bespoke Maritime Data Services
Monthly Energy Review
National Emissions Inventory
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
National Transportation Statistics
National Technical Reports Library (NTIS)
Research In Progress (RiP)
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Science.gov
ScienceDirect
Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse
Transportation Energy Data Book
Transportation Statistics Annual Report
TranStats
TRID

Fatalities

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)

Finance

Highway Statistics
Measurement of Government Transportation Financial Statistics
Transportation Statistics Annual Report
TRID

Freight Transportation

ABI–Inform
AAR
BTS Commodity Flow Survey
Congestion Data for Your City
Data Sources Related to Freight
FMCSA–Data, Analysis and Statistics
FRA E-library
FRA Office of Safety Analysis
Freight Analysis Framework
LexisNexis
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
TRID

Fuel Consumption

Annual Energy Review
CAFE Fuel Economy
Congestion Data for Your City
Transportation Energy Data Book
TRID

Groups

AASHTO Committees
FHWA Experts Directory
TRB Directory

Hazardous Materials

CFS FMCSA–Data, Analysis, and Statistics
Motor Carrier Management Information System
TRID
U.S. DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

Highway Design

Context-Sensitive Solutions
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
Research In Progress (RiP)
TRID

Highway Engineering

Highway Safety

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
Highway Safety Information System
National Automotive Sampling System
National Transportation Library Digital Collection
NTSB
Research In Progress (RiP)
Safety Data.gov
State Data System
State Traffic Safety Information
TRID

Highway Travel

BTS
Data Sources Related to Freight
Highway Statistics
Journey to Work and Place of Work
Urban Mobility Information

Highways

LTAP Clearinghouse
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
Research In Progress (RiP)
TRID

Human Factors

NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
Research In Progress (RiP)
SAE Digital Library
SafetyLit
TRID

Information Technology

IEEE Xplore
INSPEC

Injuries

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
National Automotive Sampling System
SafetyLit

Intelligent Transportation Systems

IEEE Xplore
INSPEC
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
Research In Progress (RiP)
TRID

Law Enforcement

SafetyLit
Legislation Council of State Governments Knowledge Center
LexisNexis
TRID

Logistics

ProQuest Newsstand
LexisNexis

Maintenance

LTAP Clearinghouse
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
Research In Progress (RiP)
TRID

Materials

Motor Carriers

FMCSA–Data, Analysis, and Statistics
Motor Carrier Management Information System News
LexisNexis
ProQuest Newsstand

Pavements

Pedestrians

ERIC
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
TRID
UNC Highway Safety Research Center

Persons and Personal Characteristics

Census Transportation Planning Products
National Household Travel Survey
Statistical Abstract of the United States

Planning

Academic Search Complete
Context-Sensitive Solutions
Google Scholar
National Transportation Library
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Research In Progress (RiP)
TRID
UNC Highway Safety Research Center

Policy

LexisNexis
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
Science.gov
Research In Progress (RiP)
TRID

Project Management

Public Policy

Public Transit

Road Construction

Estimating Information: Average Low Bid Unit Price
Life-Cycle Benefit–Cost Analysis Model
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
TRID

Safety

Boating Safety Resource Center
FAA Data and Research
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management
Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
FMCSA–Data, Analysis, and Statistics
FRA Office of Safety Analysis
Google Scholar
Highway Safety Information System
Motor Carrier Management Information System
National Automotive Sampling System
NTL Repository and Open Science Portal (ROSAP)
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
National Transportation Statistics
Research In Progress (RiP)
Safety Data.gov
SafetyLit
ScienceDirect
State Transportation Statistics
Transportation Statistics Annual Report
TRID
UNC Highway Safety Research Center

School Safety

Specialists

AASHTO Committees
FHWA Experts Directory
TRB Directory

State Government

Council of State Governments Knowledge Center

Taxation

Highway Statistics

Technology

Trade

CFS
Data Sources Related to Freight
Freight Analysis Framework
Monthly Energy Review
ProQuest Newsstand
LexisNexis

Traffic Congestion

Congestion Data for Your City
Urban Mobility Information

Traffic Engineering

Compendex
National Transportation Library Digital Collection
Research In Progress (RiP)
TRID

Transportation Operations

CAFE Fuel Economy
Freight Analysis Framework
Journey to Work and Place of Work
National Transportation Atlas Database
National Transportation Statistics
State Transportation Statistics
TranStats
TRID

Tunnels

Vehicles

CAFE Fuel Economy

Work Zone Safety

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Excerpted from Evans, Minotti, Post. & Sweet, "Literature Resources: Where to Search." in Literature Searches and Literature Reviews for Transportation Research Projects: How to Search, Where to Search, and How to Put It All Together: Current Practices.

TRID
Combines records from TRB’s Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD’s Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to more than 1.4 million records of transportation research worldwide. Exceptionally helpful for finding state DOT research reports.
Engineering Village
One of the most authoritative databases of abstracted and indexed literature in engineering and the applied sciences with more than 20 million citations to peer-reviewed literature (journals, conferences and trade publications) from 1970-present, utilizing the Engineering Village search and discovery interface. Updated weekly with 1 million citations added annually. Note: Indexes some engineering disciplines not common to VDOT or transportation. VDOT employees only.
ASCE Library
- This link opens in a new window
Full text articles in 37 ASCE peer-reviewed technical and professional journals from as far back as 1983-present, plus 68,000 ASCE conference proceedings papers from as far back as 1996-present, as well as 550 eBooks—for a combined total of more than 200,000 online documents. VDOT employees only.
If you are not able to connect with the link above, try: https://ascelibrary.org/

TRB Research in Progress (RiP)
Search current or recently completed transportation research projects from State Departments of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, university transportation centers and other US DOT funded universities.
Research Needs Statements
A database of research needs developed by TRB Technical Committees. Subjects: transportation; highways; air transportation; railroad transportation; water transportation; public transit; research projects, research management, construction; maintenance; safety; policy.
U.S. DOT Research Hub
A searchable database of the latest USDOT-sponsored research, development and technology projects.
Transport Research Portal
The aim of this project is to foster a closer and more effective communication between researchers working in the field of transport technologies, both in the EU and internationally. It seeks to do this providing access to information from databases of past and ongoing research projects worldwide. Subjects: transportation; highways; air transportation; railroad transportation; research projects, water transportation; public transit; construction; maintenance; safety; policy

ERIC
Primarily education. Indexes books, journals, reports, proceedings, statistical data, tests, and dissertations. Subjects: school buses; school children; pedestrians; bicycling; cyclists, school safety.
FRA E-Library
Provides access to accident, safety, litigation and compliance reports; technical and environmental reports; conference papers; press releases; and policy and guidance documents. Subjects: rail transportation. railroads. freight and passenger service. railroad safety, regulation.
ROSA-P: Repository and Open Science Access Portal
Founded as an all-digital library program, NTL’s collections in ROSA P are full-text electronic publications, datasets, and other resources. The repository is also designated as the full-text repository for USDOT-funded research under the USDOT Public Access Plan. NTL provides its collections freely to transportation researchers, statistical organizations, the media, and the general public.
SafetyLit
Indexes reports from 30 professional disciplines relevant to preventing unintentional injuries including economics, engineering, ergonomics and human factors, health and medicine, law and law enforcement, and psychology. Subjects: crashes, ergonomics, human factors, safety, injuries, law enforcement

NOTE: VDOT employees may want to start with this helpful Guide to Transportation Planning Data Sources.

Annual Energy Review
U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Information Administration. Reports annual energy statistics beginning with 1949. Includes data on total energy production, consumption, and trade; overviews of petroleum, natural gas, coal, electricity, nuclear energy, renewable energy, international energy, as well as financial and environmental indicators. Subjects: energy, environment, fuel consumption.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
BTS data collections include traffic, passenger flow, employment, financial condition, and on-time performance of commercial aviation; the Commodity Flow Survey; transborder movement of freight by mode of transportation; a census of ferry operations, precursor safety data for transit operations, and data on near misses and equipment failures in offshore operations.
CAFÉ–Fuel Economy
Includes links to reports on fuel economy performance of vehicle fleet. Subjects: environment, fuel consumption, vehicles.
Census Transportation Planning Products (CTPP)
A set of special tabulations from decennial census demographic surveys, designed for transportation planners. Utilizing large sample size, it provides reliable and accurate data. Subjects: census, persons and personal characteristics, transportation operations.
Commodity Flow Survey
Primary source of national- and state-level data on domestic freight shipments by American establishments in mining, manufacturing, wholesale, auxiliaries, and selected retail industries. Data are provided on the types, origins and destinations, values, weights, modes of transport, distance shipped, and ton-miles of commodities shipped. Subjects: commodities, freight transportation, hazardous materials, trade.
Congestion Data for Your City
Provides basic statistics and ranking for urban areas in categories of: travel delay, excess fuel consumed, truck congestion cost, and total congestion cost with comparisons back to 1982. Detailed information is provided on spreadsheets for 101 cities. Subjects: commuting, drivers, freight.
DATA.gov
Site of U.S. government’s Open Data portal. Comprehensive coverage of over 20 topics including Climate, Geospatial, Public Safety, and over 90,600 datasets. Federal, state and local data, resources, and tools. Subjects: crashes, drivers, environment, highway safety, injuries, safety.
Data Sources Related to Freight Transportation
Includes links to information on highway, maritime, rail, and pipeline modes, product information, and road classification. Subjects: freight transportation, highway travel, trade, transportation modes
FARS: Fatality Analysis Reporting System
Provides annual data regarding fatal injuries in motor vehicle traffic accidents; allows user to run customized queries. Subjects: alcohol use, bicyclists, crashes, distraction; drivers, fatalities, highway safety, injuries, safety
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Provides access to safety ratings and crash statistics for commercial trucks and buses in tables, reports. Subjects: buses, crashes, freight transportation, hazardous materials, motor carriers, safety
Freight Analysis Framework
Integrates data from a variety of sources to create a comprehensive picture of freight movement among states and major metropolitan areas. Provides estimates for tonnage and value, by commodity type, mode, origin, and destination. Subjects: commodities, freight transportation, trade, transportation operations.
Highway Safety Information System
A multistate database that contains crash, roadway inventory, and traffic volume data for a select group of states. Participating states were selected based on the quality and quantity of data available, and ability to merge data from various files. Subjects: crashes, drivers, highway safety, road construction
Highway Statistics
The Highway Statistics Series consists of annual reports containing analyzed statistical information on motor fuel, motor vehicle registrations, driver licenses, highway user taxation, highway mileage, travel, and highway finance. These information are presented in tables as well as selected charts. It has been published annually since 1945.
Journey to Work and Place of Work
Includes data on Means of Transportation to Work, Travel Time to Work, Time Leaving Home to Go to Work, Private Vehicle Occupancy, and Travel to Work Characteristics. Subjects: behavior, commuting, highway travel, transportation operations.
Life-Cycle Benefit-Cost Analysis Model
Life-cycle benefit–cost analysis for proposed projects performed using Cal-B/C, a PC-based spreadsheet model. Can analyze many types of state highway and public transit construction and operational
improvement projects. Subjects: construction, economics, finance, road construction.
Measurement of Government Transportation Financial Statistics.
Consists of transportation revenues and expenditures for federal, state and local governments. Contains data by revenue source, expenditure type, and mode. Subjects: economics, finance.
Motor Carrier Management Information System
Provides information on the safety fitness of commercial motor carriers and hazardous material shippers subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and the Hazardous Materials Regulations. Subjects: hazardous materials, motor carriers, safety, shipping.
Motor Vehicle Accidents and Fatalities
Data from US Census Bureau on Transportation motor vehicle accidents and fatalities from Statistical Abstract. Subjects: crashes, distraction, drivers, fatalities, injuries, safety
National Bridge Inventory Database
Provides data tables from National Bridge Inventory identifying bridges by new construction and rehabilitation, state and county, condition, deficiencies, deck type, year of construction and other factors. Subjects: bridges, structural health monitoring
National Household Travel Survey
National data on the travel behavior of the American public. Allows for analysis of daily travel by all modes, characteristics of the people traveling, their household, and their vehicles. The 2009 NHTS
updates information gathered in the 2001 NHTS and in prior Nationwide Personal Transportation Surveys. Subjects: behavior, commuting, persons and personal characteristics, transportation modes.
National Transit Database
Information and statistics on more than 660 transit systems in the United States. The types of data reported include operational characteristics, services characteristics, capital revenues and assets, and financial operating statistics. Subjects: buses, rail, transit, transportation modes.
National Transportation Atlas Database
Set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, networks, and associated infrastructure. These datasets include spatial information for modal networks and intermodal terminals. Metadata documentation, as prescribed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee, is provided for each database. Subjects: transportation modes, transportation operations
National Transportation Safety Board
The NTSB is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in other modes of transportation–railroad, highway, marine and pipeline. Subjects: aircraft crashes, aviation, highway safety, pipelines, rail, safety, water transportation.
National Transportation Statistics
Statistics on the U.S. transportation system, including its physical components, safety record, economic performance, the human and natural environment, and national security. More than 260 data tables plus data source and accuracy statements. Internet edition is updated quarterly. Subjects: economic and social factors, environment, safety, transportation operations.
State Data System (SDS)
While the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) has fatal crash data, SDS includes valuable data on injury and property-damage-only crashes. Consists of census data taken from police accident reports. Subjects: crashes, drivers, highway safety. Free.
State Transportation Statistics
Statistical profile of state transportation infrastructure. Freight movement, passenger travel, system safety, vehicles, and transportation-related economy and finance, energy usage, environment. Subjects: environment, economic and social factors, transit, transportation modes, transportation operations.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States and a guide to sources of other data from the Census Bureau, other federal agencies, and private organizations. Subjects: census, economic and social factors, persons and personal characteristics.
Transportation Statistics Annual Report
Presents data and information about the performance and impacts of the U.S. transportation system.Topics include traffic flows for all modes; travel times and measures of congestion; transportation costs; availability and use of mass transit; consequences of transportation for the environment; and the extent, connectivity, and condition of the transportation system. Subjects: economic and social factors, environment, finance, safety, transportation, transportation modes
TranStats
Provides comprehensive datasets by agency, mode, and subject. Subjects: economic and social factors, environment, safety, transportation, transportation modes, transportation operations.
Urban Mobility Scorecard
Provides mobility and congestion data on freeways and major streets for 100 urban areas. Includes annual Urban Mobility Report and Congested Corridors Report along with summary data tables and description of methodologies. Subjects: commuting, highway travel, traffic congestion

AASHTO Committees
Much of AASHTO’s work is done by committees comprising volunteer state DOT personnel. AASHTO provides a forum for consideration of transportation issues and conducts surveys, provides data, and testifies before Congress on transportation legislation. Subjects: directories, professional personnel, specialists.
Directory of State Highway and Transportation Department Libraries
A list of known transportation libraries and information centers with contact details. Compiled by Minnesota Department of Transportation, MnDOT Library
Federal Highway Administration Research Expertise Directory
The expertise of TFHRC scientists, engineers, and support staff at 20 laboratories and data centers encompasses more than 100 transportation-related disciplines and expertise areas. Subjects: directories, professional personnel, specialists
Transportation Research Board Directory
The TRB Online Directory provides access to points of contact and information on TRB’s standing committees, project-based committees and panels, and governing committees, as well as to lists of TRB sponsors, affiliates, and representatives. In addition, the directory provides password controlled access to contact information on TRB’s more than 7,000 volunteers. Subjects: directories, professional personnel,specialists.

Association of American Railroads
Reports on the State of the Rail Industry and the Economic and Fiscal Impact Analysis of Class I Railroads, plus a Data Center with statistics and data.
Context Sensitive Solutions
A portal funded by FHWA linking to information on context-sensitive solutions and design. Subjects: highway design; context sensitive design; planning
Council of State Governments Knowledge Center
Variety of types of information focus on issues related to state governments. Subjects: state government; legislation, public policy.
Deer-Vehicle Crash Information Clearinghouse
A pooled fund project to expand the data collection, research evaluation, and information exchange on deer–vehicle crashes. Subjects: deer, roadside fauna.
International Air Transport Association
Data and analysis of economics and policy affecting the globalperformance of the airline industry. Subjects: airlines, airports, economics, international airports, international transportation.
ITE Technical Information
Provides links to websites related to specific topics such as traffic calming, context-sensitive design, pedestrians, connected vehicles. Subjects: context-sensitive design, highway design, traffic engineering, transportation engineering.
Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Clearinghouse
A resource database to provide practical, technical, and training-related information for the transportation workforce.
Maritime Administration: U.S. Department of Transportation
Reports and statistics on the U.S. maritime industry
National RTAP Rural Transit Assistance Program
Provides support and resources in rural transit-related materials, including training modules, reports, and technical briefs. TRT terms: education and training, transit, tribal government.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
Provides information and training to diverse audiences about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility as it relates to pedestrians and bicyclists. This site is funded by the FHWA. Subjects:walking; pedestrians; bicycles, cycling; bicycles; bicyclists; nonmotorized transportation; walkways.
Science.gov
Provides access to over 55 databases and over 2,100 selected websites from 15 federal agencies, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results. Subjects: science; technology; engineering; energy; environment; policy
Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse- DOT
Designed as a one-stop source of information on transportation and climate change issues. It includes information on GHG inventories, analytic methods and tools, GHG reduction strategies, potential impacts of climate change on transportation infrastructure, and approaches for integrating climate change considerations into transportation decision making. Subjects: climate change; environmental policy; environmental protection; environmental impacts; environmental quality.
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
Data, statistics, and reports on pipelines and the movement of hazardous materials in the United States. Also links to reports, statutes, and other documents. Includes the National Pipeline Mapping System. Subjects: hazardous materials, mapping, pipeline safety, pipelines
National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse
A comprehensive information resource on roadway construction zone safety funded by FHWA. Subjects: work zone safety; work zone traffic control; construction safety.

AASHTO RAC Surveys
AASHTO's Research Advisory Committee (RAC) created this site to help members solicit information from other state DOT representatives regarding best practices, policies, specifications and more. Contains data for more than 460 completed surveys from 2003-present.

Seminal works are key works in a field: articles, books, or other texts that are introduce new knowledge in a particular field. You'll see them cited over and over again as you go about your literature review. Northcentral University has compiled a guide to finding seminal works, together with a workshop on finding seminal research that can be viewed online.

An additional resource is Web of Science, an interdisciplinary database that allow for sorting of results by the number of citations of a particular article.

Web of Knowledge/Web of Science

Web of Science offers multidisciplinary coverage of over 10,000 journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities, as well as published proceedings for over 12,000 conferences per year, and over 50,000 scholarly books. Powerful tools allow you to search and see what articles in the database have cited a particular work, as well as perform other analytics.

In addition to sorting by times cited, this database offers tools for analyzing search results and creating citation reports.

NOTE: Only accessible to UVA faculty/students and VTRC Research Scientists. For assistance with a Web of Science search contact the VDOT Research Library.

Literature Searches, Surveys and Reviews: Where to Search