On 29 November 2022, the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation (ACRI) and the UK’s Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) gave demonstrations on their respective rail knowledge hubs.
Launched in 2010, the Rail Knowledge Bank is an open access rail catalogue maintained by ACRI which offers free, high-quality, peer-reviewed material, with an Australian focus, in addition to a wide variety of international documents (papers, journals, theses, books, reports, etc.).
SPARK, the Rail Knowledge Hub, was launched in 2011 by RSSB. It currently holds 20,000 records across seven core topics with information originating from more than 60 regions around the world. SPARK stores publications, reports, and conference papers including the Human Factors Conference library, and full papers from all of the World Congresses on Railway Research (WCRR) held to date.
Unlike common search engines, such as Google Scholar, both SPARK and the Rail Knowledge Bank are curated databases. They allow users to precisely narrow down the topic and choose the type of document they are looking for (presentations, reports, and so on). Furthermore, once a person has registered (free of charge), all documents are available without being hidden behind a paywall. Thanks to these easy-to-use databases, sharing and accelerating railway research has never been so easy. Register now to see the benefits for yourself!
Where can I find them?
- The Rail Knowledge Bank: https://railknowledgebank.com/
For a more thorough demonstration of the database, please watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V81WIqz4-Qo&feature=youtu.be
For further information, please contact: rail at arrb.com.au. - SPARK: https://www.sparkrail.org/
For further information, please contact: spark at rssb.co.uk
The full video demonstration is now available at https://youtu.be/TbW2qw8gCdA
