Operations Research
The pages below focus on high-quality resources on operations research that are available to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. They include both print and electronic resources.
Dictionaries/Encyclopedias
Databases and Indexes
Selected Journals
Current Awareness
Books
Gateways to Other Operations Research Web Sites
Professional Associations and Societies
Other Operations Research Related Sites at Carnegie Mellon
- AccessScience: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Online (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Contains illustrated articles with research updates on various topics related to operations research including automation, control, flow, facilities, systems, training, performance, production, risk analysis, quality, scheduling, modeling and measurement. From the main page click on "Engineering & Materials" under "Choose a Topic". Then select "Industrial and production engineering" from the list provided. The Encyclopedia also contains defintions of scientific and technical terms, biographies, news, bibliographies, links to relevant web sites and image galleries.
- Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management
Cambridge, MA: Blackwell
Hunt Ref 658.003 B632, Vol. X: Operations Management
This book covers all of the major topics within the subject of operations management. Most authored entries include examples and figures and references to other sources. Arranged A to Z with a comprehensive index.
- Dictionary of Business (Oxford University Press) (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Includes over 6,500 entries on all aspects of business and management including operations management. Up-to-date coverage written for both students and professionals in the field.
- Core Business Program
Detroit: Facts on File
Hunt Ref 658.02 C797, Vol. 4: Operations Research, Vol. 1: Computer Applications, Vol. 6: Production
These three titles are part of a series of introductory texts on topics in business, management and finance. They are "nutshell" reviews of key concepts, models and formulae. Vol. 4: Operations Research focuses on the application of numerical analysis techniques to business problems. Contains background information on the theoretical foundations, a historical overview of management techniques, information on applications and different methods for analyzing decision problems. Vol. 1: Computer Applications introduces BASIC programming language and provides demonstrative business applications. Vol. 6: Production offers an overview of the production management function. Specific topics addressed include quality control, control, and computers and decision-making.
- Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, 2nd ed.
Boston: Kluwer Academic
Hunt Ref 658.4034 E56A2
Expert written articles on all aspects of OR/MS for students and professionals include background information on the topic, relevant applications, reviews of trends and references.
- Encyclopedia of Optimization
Boston: Kluwer Academic
Engr&Sci Ref 519.3 E48
Covers theories, algorithms and applications of optimization in various fields including OR/MS. Survey articles contain information on topics of general interest, while other articles focus more specifically on applications. Also includes historical and biographical entries. Many of the authored entries provide illustrations and references. An index to the set is available.
- A Lexicon of Decision Making (Decision Analysis Society)
Written by Dr. Tom Spradlin, owner of a business consultancy Confident Choices, with contributions from other colleagues, this brief "narrative" provides non-technical, readable definitions of commonly used terms in decision making. Terms include decision analysis, forecasts, outcome, models, objective, prioritization, risk, sensitivity, strategy and values.
- Operational Research: French-English, English-French Vocabulary
New York: American Elsevier
Hunt Ref 001.4203 O480
This dictionary is useful for translating French words related to operational research into English or vice versa. Provides a translation only - no definition or pronunciation information included.
- Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems (Principia Cybernetica Web)
Authored entries are pulled with permission from the ASC Glossary, Krippendorff's Dictionary and Hornung's Glossary. Organized as an A to Z list, terms range from general topics to the specific and technical. Other dictionaries available through Principia Cybernetica Web may also be useful, including the Dictionary of Computing Terms. Most of these dictionaries are searchable through the OneLook Dictionaries.
- Analyzing Operations in Business: Issues, Tools, and Techniques
Westport, CT: Quorum Books
Hunt 658.4034 S95A (Stacks-2)
- Handbook of Automation, Computation, and Control
New York: Wiley
Engr&Sci 621.8 G72H
- Knovel: Answers for Science and Engineering (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Titles include:
- Juran's Quality Handbook
- Process/Industrial Instruments and Controls Handbook (5th Edition)
- Reliability, Maintainability and Risk: Practical Methods for Engineers (5th Edition)
- Safety, Reliability and Risk Management: An Integrated Approach (2nd Edition)
- Modern Physical Metallurgy and Materials Engineering: Science, Process, Applications (6th Edition)
- Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables
- Operations Research: Methods, Models, and Applications
Westport, CT: Quorum
Hunt 658.4034 O61 (Stacks-2)
- Principles of Operations Research for Management
Homewood, IL: Irwin
Hunt 658.4 B927P (Stacks-2) and Engr&Sci 658.4 B927P
- Principles of Operations Research
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Hunt 001.424 W13P2 (Stacks-2)
- The Project Management Institute: Project Management Handbook
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Hunt 658.404 P9643 (Stacks-2)
- The Project Manager's Desk Reference (Carnegie Mellon users only)
- INFORMS Online Membership Directory
- Who's Who in the Management Sciences
Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar
Hunt Ref 658.0092 W628
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Databases and Indexes:
The following databases are available to Carnegie Mellon users only, unless otherwise noted.
- ABI/Inform in ProQuest Direct
ABI/Inform is the primary database for locating research articles, case studies and related material for the field of management. It is strong in applied management in various fields. Coverage also includes national and international business news weekly magazines and trade journals.
Some of the full text journals include:
- Decision Sciences
- Industrial Distribution
- Management Science
- Modern Materials Handling
- Production & Inventory Management Journal
- Logistics Information Management
- Journal of Heuristics and
- Journal of Supply Chain Management
Useful terms for Subject or Topic Guide searches:
- distribution
- heuristics
- inventory
- operations research
- optimization
- process (process controls, process planning, process engineering)
- production planning
- queuing
- scheduling
- spreadsheets
- workforce planning
- ACM Digital Library
The ACM Digital Library contains the full-text of nearly all of the articles and proceedings published by the Association for Computing Machinery from 1991 forward. It also includes tables of contents with citations for articles published in ACM journals from 1985 forward, and the tables of contents and citations to articles published in ACM-related conference proceedings from 1985 forward. Browse the Digital Library by publication type or search its full-text holdings by keyword using the search box on the main page or the Advanced Search option. Special interest group publications are browsable by group and publication type. You may want to try these groups:
- SIGACT: ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory
- SIGAPP: ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing
- SIGMETRICS: ACM Special Interest Group on Measurement and Evaluation
- SIGMIS: ACM Special Interest Group on Management Information Systems
- SIGSIM: ACM Special Interest Group on Simulation and Modeling
- Applied Science and Technology Abstracts in FirstSearch
Applied Science and Technology Abstracts provides information on management and financial trends in scientific and technological fields. Subjects covered include computer technology, data processing, engineering and mathematics. ASTA includes abstracts and some full-text of articles, conference proceedings, proudct announcements and reviews, and much more.
Relevant journal titles include:
- Computers in Industry
- Computing & Control Engineering Journal
- Control Engineering
- Control Solutions
- Controls & Systems
- International Journal of Production Economics
- Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control
- Materials Engineering
- Materials Evaluation
- Process Engineering
- Production Engineering
- Quality
- CiteSeer.IST
This is an open access digital library of scientific literature with a focus on computer science hosted by the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. CiteSeer indexes research articles on the Web and offers additional features for searching like reference linking and related documents options. CiteSeer also offers an awareness and tracking service to users.
- Ei: Engineering Village 2
Ei: Engineering Village 2 is an interdisciplinary engineering site with fulltext. Contains various databases to serach, including Compendex, Inspec and NTIS. The Reference Services section includes features such as Ask a Librarian and Ask an Engineer.
Search the bibliographic database Compendex for journal articles using Ei headings:
- operations research--applications
- operations research--mathematical models
- operations research--calculations
- operations research--history
- operations research--optimization
- operations research--costs
- operations research--computer applications
- operations research--computer simulation
- production engineering--operations research
- industrial economics--operations research
- military engineering--operations research
- transportation--operations research
or use the Thesaurus to find related terms. Search the Thesaurus for "operations research".
Browse Referex Engineering ebooks under "eBook Search" for specialized reference titles. Try browsing by subject:
- Production Management
- Quality Systems/Quality Assurance
- Manufacturing Processes and Systems
- Process Control
- Process Design
- General Business File in InfoTrac
General Business File is a competitor of ABI/Inform in that it provides citation and full text access to articles in business and economics. There is some overlap in journal titles between the two databases, but each one excels at coverage of selected industries and applied management topics. It is best to look in both databases when researching a topic. Also, if one database does not contain the full-text of the publication, the other often will have it. Use the Subject Guide to find useful subject headings and keywords for searching. The Subject Guide lists many subdivisions of operations research included in the database. Headings related to operations research include:
- mathematical optimization
- mathematical programming
- queuing theory
- resource allocation
- scheduling
- simulation methods
- statistical decision
- systems engineering
- systems theory
- IEEE Xplore
IEEE Xplore provides full-text access to IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) transactions, journals, magazines and conference proceedings published since 1988 plus select content back to 1950, and all current IEEE Standards. You can search all IEEE publication types at once or select journals, conference preceedings or standards. Try operations research and operational research combined with other keywords. (For ideas see the lists of keywords given for other databases above or for the library catalog below).
- INFORMS PubsOnLine
INFORMS provides searching and fulltext access to eleven well-regarded journals titles published by INFORMS, the professional association for operations research and management science. Articles focus on the use of information technology and the analysis of systems for use in decision making for a wide range of real-world applications. The research here draws primarily on the fields of engineering, management, mathematics and psychology.
Journals include:
- Decision Analysis
- Information Systems Research
- INFORMS Journal on Computing
- Interfaces
- Management Science
- Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
- Marketing Science
- Mathematics of Operations Research
- Operations Research
- Organization Science
- Transportation Science
- INSPEC in FirstSearch
This database contains bibliographic records with abstracts for over 5,600 scholarly publications in communications, computing, electrical engineering, electronics, physics, and information technology. Items include books, dissertations, technical reports, and articles in journals and conference proceedings. Useful terms for Subject and Subject Phrase searches are the same as for the database ABI/Inform (above) and for the library catalog (below) with one important exception: use optimisation as a Subject term instead of optimization. Both will work as Keyword searches.
- International Abstracts in Operations Research
IAOR is a comprehensive source for article citations in operations research, abstracting more than 180 leading journals. The print edition covers from Vol. 1 (1961/62) to Vol. 55 Is. 8 (2004), and is housed in the Indexes section of Hunt Library's Reference Department. For online access to similar range of articles, use ABI/Inform.
- LexisNexis Statistical
LexisNexis Statistical contains pointers to data sets on a myriad of subjects produced by government, nonprofit and private agencies and organizations. From the main search page select the "Search Abstracts" option. You can search for your research topic in the "Subject List" for suggested subject headings and keywords. Headings related to operations research include logistics, industrial production, production and operating costs, operating ratios, productivity, distribution and transportation.
- Operations Research/Management Science
Whippany, NJ: Executive Sciences Institute
Hunt Ref Index: Shelved by Title (1968-current)
Operations Research/Management Science: The International Literature Digest is an index of the professional literature of OR/MS that provides citations and abstracts organized by topic as well as journal and book tables of contents and a current journal list.
- The OR/MS Index, 1952-1976
Providence, RI: Institute of Management Sciences
Hunt Ref 650.05 O61
- Social Sciences Citation Index and Science Citation Index in Web of Science
SSCI and SCI contain citations from academic journals in business, management, engineering and the sciences. This interdisciplinary collection can be searched like any other database (by author, title, source, subject), but is important to scholarly research because of an added function: links to citing sources, which are a powerful tool for building a literature review. This function can identify key papers, studies and authors on a specific theory, and the other articles that cite them.
- TRIS Online (Open access)
TRIS Online is a public-domain, web-based version of the Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) bibliographic database, as a component of the National Transportation Library. TRIS Online includes bibliographic records covering transportation research published in books, journal articles, technical reports and other media with selected links to full-text or sources of full-text. It covers the literature from the 1960s to the present, including federal, state, local and association publications. Includes links to the IRRD (International Road and Transport Database) for further coverage of international transportation.
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Selected Journals:
Unless otherwise noted, the print journal location is the Hunt Library 3rd Floor.
- Computational Optimization and Applications (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1992-present ENGR&SCI; electronic access: 1997-1998)
- Decision Sciences (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1974-2002; electronic access: 2003-present)
- Decision Support Systems (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1985-present; electronic access: current year)
- European Journal of Operational Research (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1983-present; electronic access: 2003-2004)
- Industrial Engineer
(print only: 2003-present)
- Information Systems Research (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1995-present; electronic access: 1998-present)
- INFORMS Journal on Computing (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1996-present ENGR&SCI; electronic access: 1989-present)
- INFORMS Transactions on Education (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(electronic access only: 2000-present)
- Interfaces (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1971-present; electronic access: 1971-present)
- International Journal of Production Research (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1977-present; electronic access: 1997-present)
- Journal of Operations Management (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1984-present; electronic access: current year)
- Journal of the Operational Research Society (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1978-present; electronic access: 1978-1997)
- Management Science 1954-1999 via JSTOR (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Management Science 1998-present via INFORMS (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1954-present; electronic access: 1954-1999 and 1998-present)
- Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 2001-present; electronic access: 1999-present)
- Mathematical Methods of Operations Research
(print only: 1996-present)
- Mathematics of Operations Research (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1976-present; electronic access: 1998-present)
- Naval Research Logistics (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1987-2001; electronic access: 1997-2004)
- Operational Research Quarterly 1950-1952 via JSTOR (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Operational Research Quarterly 1953-1969 via JSTOR (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Operational Research Quarterly 1970-1977 via JSTOR (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1956-1977; electronic access: 1950-1977)
- Operations Research 1956-1999 via JSTOR (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Operations Research 1998-present via INFORMS (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1956-present; electronic access: 1956-1999 and 1998-present)
- Operations Research Letters (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1989-present; electronic access: current year)
- ORSA Journal on Computing
(print only: 1989-1995 ENGR&SCI; continued as INFORMS Journal on Computing)
- Transportation Science (Carnegie Mellon users only)
(print: 1967-present; electronic access: 1998-present)
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- ingenta (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Sign up to track your favorite academic journals or research topics weekly by email.
- Knowledge at Wharton: Operations Management
Online resource updated biweekly offers the latest business news and information.
- OR/MS Today (INFORMS)
This bi-monthly online publication's site also includes updates and information on current issues in OR/MS.
Cameo: Use Subject Headings to Find Books
Books on operations research-related topics can be found in Cameo, under subject headings like those listed below. Use the "subject" search button or combine the terms with others and do a "keyword" search, such as decision making and mathematical models.
- operations research
- operations analysis
- operational research
- operational analysis
- industrial engineering
- systems analysis
- systems engineering
- system theory
- management science
- mathematical models
- mathematical optimization
- mathematical programming
- stochastic analysis
- stochastic processes
- queuing theory
- linear programming
- geometric programming
- dynamic programming
- calculus of variations
- simulation
- probability
- decision making
- risk assessment
- computer networks
- project management
WorldCat: Books and Materials at Other Libraries
Use WorldCat and any of the subject headings listed above to see what other libraries have on your topic(s). If you register for ILLiad, our interlibrary loan service, then you can request the items in WorldCat that we do not own already with a click of the "ILL" button.
Gateways to Other Operations Research Web Sites:
- Cal State San Marcos Library: Subject Guide for Operations Research and Management Science
- INFORMS OR/MS Resources page
- MIT Operations Research Center
- Stanford University Engineering Library: Subject Guide for Management Science and Engineering
- University of Delaware Library: Internet Resources for Operations Research
- Virginia Tech University Libraries: Subject Guide for Industrial and Systems Engineering
- World-Wide-Web for Operations Research and Management Science
Professional Associations and Societies:
- American Society for Quality
- Association for Computing Machinery: Special Interest Groups
- Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
- International Federation of Operational Research Societies
- Mathematical Programming Society
- The OR Society
- Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
- Society of Manufacturing Engineers
Other Operations Research Related Sites at Carnegie Mellon:
- Tepper School of Business
- Department of Mathematical Sciences: Undergraduate Degree Program: Operations Research Concentration
- University Archives: Herbert Simon Collection
Full-text digital archive of Nobel Laureate and Carnegie Mellon Professor Dr. Herbert Simon's publications, reports, teaching materials, lectures, correspondence and more. Search the collection for operations research-related documents by clicking on "Access" and searching for "operations research".
Back to Business Research Guides pages
This guide originally developed for Carnegie Mellon University Libraries by Teresa Houk, Information Assistant and graduate student in the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Pittsburgh, Spring 2004.