Research guides: Geography &amp; Environmental Management: Find articles

About this page

This page lists databases for almost everything, and for specific topics, such as:

climate change
arctic mountains and glaciers
agriculture
aviation
geographic information systems (GIS)
hydrology
remote sensing imagery
soil health, wetlands
health

A brief review of databases:

how to navigate
what they contain
some of the functions and benefits

Find articles for almost everything

Many databases offer a broad range of subjects in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences, and there are other databases structured to inform on a specific discipline. Learning to navigate a database is key to finding what you need. The platforms look different, but the functionality of the features are quite similar. Use the advanced search option, pay attention to the fields you search in, and use the operators. Operators are signals to the system to parse out a different set of results. The three main operators are AND, OR, NOT. Essential to their capital letter format for the system to recognize it as an operator, and not as a regular word. AND combines ideas, for example, ecology AND metaphor. OR expands the search by grouping like-minded ideas together, for example, river OR stream OR lake. NOT is used if a term that you are not interested in keeps showing up in your results. For example, if you are interested in "creepy crawlers" but not zombies, yet zombies continue to populate your results, you could search for "creepy crawlers" NOT zombies. Notice the use of double quotes for "creepy crawlers". The system will conduct a phrase search for two or more words contained within the double quotes. For example, "climate change", "invasive species", "food security". Single words do not need the double quote format.

Contact me for assistance with searching a database, and getting the most out of it.

Check references in:

books
book chapters
encyclopedias
government information
technical reports
working papers
articles
magazines
news items
catalogues
pamphlets

It is often useful to skim the references to find more information on your topic. Many of these references are available in the library collections.

ABI/INFORM
Articles on business and management from U.S. and international journals and trade magazines, including company histories, competitive intelligence, and product development.
Coverage: 1971 - present
Includes scholarly journals, trade magazines, working papers, market research, and company profiles.

Academic OneFile
Articles on the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects.
Coverage: 1980 - present

Business Source Elite
Provides full-text coverage of top business, management and economics journals and periodicals.
Coverage: 1985 - present

Factiva
News, business magazines, trade journals, newsletters, and television and radio transcripts.
Coverage: 1970s - present. Varies by publication
Factiva forbids storing or using search results in research applications such as data mining or trend analysis.
Note: If you are at a public workstation you will be asked for your WatIAM (Quest) User ID and Password.

Gale Power Search
A platform with many databases comprising peer-reviewed, magazine, and news articles as well as primary sources dating back to the 17th century.
Coverage: varies

ScienceDirect
Articles and book chapters from physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences, social sciences and humanities.
Coverage: Varies

Scopus
Peer-reviewed literature from scientific journals, books and conference proceedings, covering the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Coverage: 1966 - present

Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
Full text scholarly articles in all areas of the social sciences.
Coverage: varies

SpringerLink - eJournals
Articles on the physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences, social sciences, humanities, business, and education.

Coverage: to current

Web of Science
Articles and citations in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Coverage: Varies
Web of Science is comprised of several databases. The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI) covers journals in the medical, physical and natural sciences, and engineering fields. The entire database extends back to 1899. The Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) covers journals in the social sciences. The entire database extends back to 1898. The Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) covers journals in the arts and humanities. It also selectively covers relevant items from science and technical journals. The entire database extends back to 1975.

Wiley Online Library
A multidisciplinary collection of online books and journals covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities.
Coverage: varies

Find articles on specific subjects

ECOLOGY; GOVERNANCE; SUSTAINABILITY

American Geophysical Union (AGU) Digital Library
Research journals from the American Geophysical Union. Focuses on the Earth and environment.
Coverage: varies

Annual Reviews
Critical reviews within the Biomedical, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences including Economics.
Coverage: 1996 - present
Since 1932, Annual Reviews has offered comprehensive, timely collections of critical reviews written by leading scientists. Annual Reviews volumes are published each year for 30 focused disciplines.

Annual Reviews contain several journal titles on specific theme.

For example:

Biodiversity Heritage Library
Provides natural history, biodiversity, and taxonomic literature.
Coverage: 1400s - present
A consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections.

BioOne
Indexes scholarly journals in the fields of biological, ecological and environmental science.
Coverage: Most 2001 - present
BioOne provides a unique aggregation of titles that are produced by societies and non-commercial publishers. Major areas of coverage include: entomology, crustaceans, ecology, botany, ferns, lichen, ornithology, mosses, reptiles, and microbiology.

Birds of the World
Comprehensive life histories for all bird species and families.
Coverage: Created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Birds of the World (BOW) content was amassed from four major works: _Birds of North America, The Handbook of Birds of the World, Neotropical Birds,_ and_ _ Bird Families of the World. Included is the Macaulay Library, which contains the world’s largest collection of animal sounds as well as a rapidly growing photo and video library of animal behavior.

Cold Regions Bibliography
Citations to journals, books, technical reports and conference proceedings on cold regions science and technology.
Coverage: 1996 - present
The Antarctic Bibliography (1950 - 2011) covers all disciplines related to the region including biological and geological sciences, medical sciences, meteorology, oceanography, atmospheric and terrestrial physics, expeditions, logistics equipment and supplies, and tourism. The Bibliography on Cold Regions Science and Technology (early 1900's - 2011) includes references to scientific and engineering research related to material and operations in a winter battlefield, the nature and impact of cold on facilities and activities, cold-related environmental problems, and the impact of human activity on cold environments.

GEOSCAN
Bibliographic database for scientific publications of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).
Coverage: pre-confederation to present
GEOSCAN features records primarily of the Earth Sciences (Geological Survey of Canada publications, National Atlas maps, Topographic maps, Remote sensing publications). It also includes Mining, Materials and Energy, and publications authored by NRCan scientists and specialists.

IDRC Digital Library
A repository of information and technical reports on international development.
Coverage: 1970 - present
The IDRC (International Development Research Centre) Digital Library contains outputs from projects funded by the International Development Research Centre. Topics include climate change, economics, employment and growth, environment, evaluation, food and agriculture, innovation, governance, health, communication, natural resources, science and technology, social policy.

OnePetro
Technical literature on oil and gas exploration and production.
Coverage: Varies
Operated by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the content varies, comprising mostly journal articles and conference proceedings.

SciELO
Search open access journals on a wide variety of topics. Created to help meet the research needs of scholars in developing countries.

Coverage: 1935 - present

AGRICULTURE; FOOD SECURITY

Agricola
Provides citations to agricultural literature. Agricola is now available through SEARCH from the USDA National Agricultural Library.
Coverage: 1970 - present
Categories include animals, livestock, food, nutrition, education, laws, marketing, environment, plants, crops, research, and community development.

AGRIS
Bibliography and some full text of articles, monographs, book chapters, and grey literature including science and technical reports, theses, dissertations and conference papers.
Coverage: 1974 - present
via Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

CABI Digital Library
Subject coverage: agricultural, animal and environmental sciences; food safety; ecoterrorism; climate change; ecotourism; pharmacology; physiology; toxicology; occupational health; gerontology; and policy recommendations.
Coverage: 1900s - present

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Publications (FAO)
Publications on food and nutrition, natural resources and agricultural systems, economic and social development.
Coverage: 2006 - current

OECD iLibrary
Full text documents and statistical sets from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Coverage: 1998 - present

HEALTH; WATER

PubMed
Articles in medicine, life sciences, animal sciences, plant sciences, biomedical research, medical devices, nursing, biotechnology, the healthcare system, and the preclinical sciences.
Coverage: 1950 - present
PubMed is comprised of citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites.

BioMed Central
Publishes journals in science, technology, engineering, and medicine.
Coverage: 1997 - (varies by title)
BioMed Central (BMC) is a science, technology and medicine publisher of peer-reviewed open access journals. The portfolio of journals spans all areas of biology, biomedicine and medicine and includes broad interest titles, such as BMC Biology and BMC Medicine alongside specialist journals, such as Retrovirology and BMC Genomics.

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
Provides comprehensive coverage of the literature related to public health and allied health disciplines.
Coverage: 1981 - present
Offers complete coverage of English language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association, this database covers nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines. In addition, CINAHL offers access to health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, audiovisuals and book chapters.

EMBASE (OVID)
Indexes international biomedical and pharmaceutical journals.
Coverage: 1974 - present
EMBASE indexes international journals in the following fields: drug research, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, toxicology, clinical and experimental human medicine, health policy and management, public health, occupational health, environmental health, drug dependence and abuse, psychiatry, forensic medicine, and biomedical engineering/instrumentation. There is selective coverage for nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, psychology, and alternative medicine.

Note: Access A limited number of users may access this database simultaneously; if you are unable to connect, please try later.

Medline
Literature in biomedicine, medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences.
Coverage: 1950 - present
Produced by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Medline provides citations, many with abstracts, to the world's journal literature. Sources include current biomedical journals published in more than 70 countries.

NatMed
Provides evidence-based information about complementary and alternative therapies.
Coverage: 2001 - present
Natural Medicines, founded by clinicians and researchers, is the most authoritative resource available on dietary supplements, natural medicines, and complementary, alternative, and integrative therapies.