Environmental Science

This page provides you with the best resources for your assignments.

For tips on how to make your research faster and easier visit the Searching Strategies page under the Guides page of this course guide.

Under the same section is a page that provides tips on how to Evaluate Resources. 

General

Searching Multiple Databases

This is a search on sustainab* AND agricultur* (occuring in titles, abstracts and subject headings) that searches in several databases simulteneously: Academic Search, Green File, EBSCO eBooks and Science Reference Center.

To select databases for simultaneous searching, click on "Choose Databases" at the top of the EBSCOhost search box.

(You can also follow the link to the search above and enter your own topic keywords.)

You can add other terms to the search to find more specific articles. For example, you might add other the search terms to the search limiting their occurrence to the Abstract.

Policy-Related Articles

Other Sample Searches

A search in Google Scholar on hydraulic fracturing OR fracking

A search in Google Scholar on nuclear energy policy OR issues OR regulation 

A search in Google Scholar on biotech OR biotechnology agriculture OR agricultural OR crop OR plant 

A search in GreenFile, Academic Search Premier, SocIndex and Social Science Index:
SU ( nuclear AND energy ) AND AB ( policy OR issues OR regulation )

A search in GreenFile, Academic Search Premier, SocIndex and Social Science Index:
SU ( biotech* AND agricult* ) OR AB ( biotech* AND agricult* ) AND AB ( policy OR polit* OR issues OR regulation )

Key Resources

Sample Searches - Science in Context

A search on sustainable agriculture  

A search on hydraulic fracturing (or fracking)  

A search on agricultural biotechnology

The WorldCat Research Station is the essential tool for finding books, eBooks, DVDs, etc. available in and through the Zondervan Library.

Field prefixes in WorldCat:
au: author
ti: title
su: subject
kw: keyword
yr: range of years -- e.g., 1980..2016

Here's a search on (ti:sustainab* AND agricultur*) OR (su:sustainab* AND agricultur*) ["'sustainable agriculture" or variant in a title or in a subject heading] and limited to resources available through the Zondervan Library.

Worldcat is also a very useful resource for generating interlibrary loan requests for books or articles:

Find citation/entry for item (e.g., book or article) --> Search by title (ti: prefix) in WorldCat --> Request Item through Interlibrary Loan.   See Google Scholar to WorldCat to ILLiad video

It may not be easy to find reports or "gray literature" on some topics.  Three key tools are WorldCat Research Station, Google Scholar and perhaps most effective a Google Web search.

In WorldCat Research Station search your topic, then LIMIT by FORMAT limiting to "Archival material" and "Internet Resource".

What you find will often have a direct link (e.g., View Now) to the online resource.

In Google Scholar and Google Web, identify "gray literature" by noting the absence of a journal title, publication source and the use of "report OR paper OR briefing" in your search strategy.

In a Google Web search, go to Advanced Search and try limiting your topic to .org in the Site or Domain: field. You may also want to use ".pdf" in the search box with your search terms.

Another resource of potential value for "white papers": the Congressional Research Service (URL is to a Google Search "Congressional Research Service" to which you can add search terms.) 

Here is a search example on "sustainable agriculture".  

Examples of Gray Literature

LeClere, D. (2014). Water Use for Hydraulic Fracturing: A Texas Sized Problem?

Fracking by the Numbers (2016).

Political brief on the Principles on Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Foodsystems (2015).

Agricultural Biotechnology: Background, Regulation, and Policy Issues.

USDA. (2014). Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States.

Nuclear Energy Policy. 

Climate Change and Nuclear Power 2016.