ENV 100 - Introduction to Environmental Science: Online Databases for Environmental Science

Online Databases for Environmental Science

Basically two types:  First, full-text databases have the articles attached to the citation, but may index a smaller number of journals. 

Second, citation databases, which index a large number of journals, but you may have to use interlibrary loan to find the articles.

Full Text (articles attached) resources:

• Science Direct 
  • Journals, and ebooks from Elsevier Scientific Publishing.
  • Most are in full-text
• Agricola 
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library.
  • Very broad definition of "Agriculture"
  • Excellent source for U.S. Government-sponsored information 
  • The citations are comprised of journal articles, monographs, theses, etc.
• GreenFILE
  • Ecology and Environmental Science Journals and Magazines
  • Most citations have full-text of article included.
  • EBSCO search engine
• BioOne 
  • 100% full text.
  • Journals from scientific associations and non-commercial publishers.
  • Focus on biological, ecological and environmental sciences.

Citation databases (more titles, less full-text):

• Web of Science  
  • Also called Science Citation Index.
  • Articles are linked through bibliographies.
  • Citations going back to early 1950's.
  • Premier science database at KU. 
  • Use Interlibrary Loan for articles.

Other databases to consider:

• JSTOR 
  • Use Advanced.Search
  • Full-text
  • Indexes 164 Bio journals, 87 in Plant Science, and 131 in Ecology and Environmental Sciences
• Biological Abstracts
  • Large citation database. (not much in full-text)
  • EBSCO interface.
  • Use Interlibrary Loan for articles.
  • Search along with BioAbstracts ny using "Choose Database" link.

In the last 10 years, scholarly publishing has been plagued by explosive growth of bogus scientific journals, sometimes called "predatory journals." 

Library databases will screen out these fake journals for you, but if you are picking something from the public internet, you need to add an extra step to your research.  You need to make sure the article you are looking at comes from a genuine peer-reviewed journal.  

There is a library database called Cabell's that lists predatory journals:    Cabell's Predatory Reports.  Go to this database and type in the name of the journal you found on the web.  If you find the journal in this database, you should not use the article in your research.