Welcome to the GEOG 414 Guide
Depending on your topic, your research needs might be more interdisciplinary in nature, using humanities and social sciences journals rather than just natural sciences journals. I can recommend more databases and search strategies related to your topic. Let me know if you have questions or need help!
The databases below include large, interdisciplinary collections. They'll be the best places to start searching for your topic to make sure it's new research.
Google Scholar
Although it can be a challenge using Google Scholar to find full text articles, this freely available search engine is perfect for research projects where you need to see the articles that have already been published about a topic. Google Scholar is not a complete representative of all scholarly journals, so you'll want to check multiple library databases as well.
Search Tips
Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT
- AND combines two search words together. Both must appear in your article, narrowing your results.
- OR allows you to search for synonyms or like terms. Only one of the terms must appear in your article, broadening your results.
- NOT removes a specific search term from your results.
Quotation marks
- Phrases "stick together" like they're one term. "climate change"; "blue whale"; Cretaceous period"
Asterisks
- Add to the end of a root word to find all words that include all words that include that root term. volcan* - volcano, volcanic, volcanology, volcanism
Limiters
- Usually found on the left side of the screen
- Narrow by subject, date, or peer-reviewed
- For this particular project, you want to cast as wide a net as possible (at least at first), so you likely won't use too many limiters.
Large Databases - Best Bets
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowEnables users to search in thousands of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. Users can navigate forward, backward, and through the literature, searching all disciplines and time spans to uncover all information relevant to their research.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowScienceDirect's Freedom Collection includes extensive full-text journal coverage of the physical, biological, and social sciences.
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new windowAccess an unprecedented collection of journals, magazines, reports, books, and videos. Many are peer-reviewed and full-text.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowElectronic archive of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- Natural Science Collection This link opens in a new windowProvides access to scholarly and other publications in agriculture, aquatic science, atmospheric science, biology, earth science, environmental science, and more.
Other Useful Databases
- ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global This link opens in a new windowGenerally speaking, dissertations are new research projects conducted by PhD students as they become contributing members of their discipline. Check out our collection of dissertations to see what PhD students have completed recently.
This database covers all titles in “ProQuest Dissertations & Thesis Full Text” and in addition also contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesPNAS is one of the world's most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals, publishing more than 3,200 research papers annually. Established in 1914, PNAS publishes cutting-edge research, science news, Commentaries, Perspectives, Colloquium Papers, Reviews, and actions of the NAS. The journal's content spans the biological, physical, and social sciences and is global in scope.
