Project Research

Project Research Exercise and Hints

For your final project you will need to do some reading and library research on your topic. I suggest you start by finding some general articles describing your topic and associated issues. For your final paper/project you will be required to study and incorporate at least one research article from the computer science literature. In some cases government documents laying out standards or policies will be useful.

Some Sources

The library! On-line databases especially.
ACM Digital Library. You have access if you have a student membership. If not, some things in this library can be accessed through the RC library but you can also see me since I have access.
Google Scholar
Government web sites such as National Institute of Standards and Technology (www.nist.gov) (look at the Computer Security Resource Center - a link on the right side of the window) or Government Accounting Office (enter a security related search topic).
Sources referenced in your text book or other articles you find.
Some other links on the course web site.

Using the Library On-line Databases - An Exercise

Go to the library web page
Click on Complete list of resources, then click on Academic Search Complete
Now click on Choose Databases. You will see a list of discipline specific databases you can add. Select the following:
1. Computers and Applied Sciences Complete
2. Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts
3. Military and Government Collection
Back on the search page type in a search term. For this exercise type "Buffer Overflow".
You should have gotten 403 results. Scroll down to the 5th one about buffer overflow in the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Click on the title to get the detailed record. This gives you lots of information about the article (and for this one you can get the full text of the article) that can be useful.
1. The abstract lets you know whether or not this article may be helpful.
2. The full text is often available (it is for this one). If it isn't available you can request a copy through Interlibrary Loan.
3. The list of subject terms can be useful in finding additional terms to narrow your search or to do other searches.
4. The tools on the right side of the window are very helpful. For example, you can click on email to have all of the info including a link sent to you in an email (it will be from ephost).
5. The other tool that is very helpful is the cite option. Click on that for the buffer overflow article and you will see a list of standard citation styles plus the correct citation for that article. There is no standard for computer science (I think each journal has its own format). I recommend the Chicago/Turabian Author-Date style or the Harvard style.