LibGuides: Resource & Environmental Studies: Home/Databases

Key Databases

These databases will help you to identify journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports and other materials related to environmental topics.

Note (May 2017): "Environmental Science and Pollution Management" database is now known as "Agricultural and Environmental Science".

Agriculture Science Database This link opens in a new window
Previously known as Agricultural & Environmental Science database. This database contains the leading agricultural journals published in North America. ProQuest Agriculture Journals offers the complete text as well as complete images from such journals as Agricultural Research, Forest Products Journal, Journal of Animal Science, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation and Plant Physiology. Environmental content can be found at this link- Environmental Science Database
Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
References to journal articles and books in areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more.
Biological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
The key database for all aspects of biology (1926 to present).
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text articles from 1995 to the present. Also indexes citations from 1800s to the present.
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Centre) - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles and documents on all aspects of education (1966 to the present).
Scopus This link opens in a new window
One of the largest databases of peer-reviewed literature, it indexes scientific journals, books and conference proceedings in the sciences, social sciences and the arts & humanities.
GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
Journal articles, book chapters, government reports and general-interest material covering all aspects of human impact on the environment
USDA SEARCH This link opens in a new window
Indexes the collections of the National Agricultural Library (US), as well as international sources of agricultural information. Coverage includes agriculture, animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries
CAB Abstracts 1973-present This link opens in a new window
Covers the significant research and development literature in the applied life sciences, including agriculture, forestry, human nutrition, veterinary medicine and the environment.
Oceanic Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles, reports, books, theses and conference proceedings related to the marine and brackish-water environment. Coverage includes biological, chemical, physical and geological oceanography, as well as aquaculture, maritime law, shipping, navigation and meteorology. Oceanic Abstracts is part of Proquest’s Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database. Content in this database is now available via Agricultural & Environmental Science Collection
GeoRef This link opens in a new window
Covers the world's literature in geology and the geosciences.
Public Affairs Index This link opens in a new window
Covering all aspects of global public policy issues, this database indexes scholarly publications, conference papers, government documents and current reference works.
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
Indexes articles, books, documents, and reports covering public policy issues (1972 to the present).
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles, conference papers and books on all aspects of sociology and related disciplines (1963 to the present).
Econlit This link opens in a new window
Indexes 120 years of economics literature, providing references to journal articles, books, book reviews, working papers and dissertations.
Federal Science Library (Canada) This link opens in a new window
The Federal Science Library (FSL) is a one-stop, self-serve portal where you can search the collections and repositories of seven Canadian science-based departments and agencies from a single place. Wherever possible, departmental publications, reports, data sets and other content are freely available to access or download.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) This link opens in a new window
Full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly articles from around the world. To search for articles on a topic, click on Find Articles on left side of DOAJ screen.
OAIster This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to theses, journal articles, conference proceedings, and many other resources that are freely available from electronic collections around the world.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,650 serials, including full text for more than 3,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. This database is updated on a daily basis

Additional Databases

Canada Commons This link opens in a new window
Provides fulltext of documents published by Canadian public policy institutes, government agencies, advocacy groups, think-tanks, university research centres and other public interest groups.
EIS, digest of environmental impact statements This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts of environmental impact statements issued by departments of the US federal government. (1985 to present). To locate the full documentation for items found, search the US Federal Register site.
OCLC WorldCat This link opens in a new window
WorldCat is an online catalogue that compiles listings of materials from over 9,000 libraries worldwide. To limit your search, click on the Advanced Search tab.

US Federal Register
TRAIL - Technical Report Archive and Image Library (USA)
An initiative to digitize and provide access to the fulltext of US federal technical reports issued prior to 1975.
Treesearch
A fulltext database of peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings and other publications by research scientists employed by the USDA Forest Service. Also includes monographs published by the Forest Service.
Newspapers
Aurora
Aurora a free search tool from the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) that allows users to easily search for materials in the LAC's online collection.

Can't find what you need? The following databases may assist you in identifying books, government documents and hard-to-find, gray literature. Once you have identified an item of interest, you may wish to order it via Dalhousie's Document Delivery service:

Database Tutorials

How to Search a ProQuest database (5 min. video)
ProQuest databases include Agricultural & Environmental Science, ASFA, GeoRef, PAIS, ERIC and Sociological Abstracts.
How to Find Journal Articles by using Biological Abstracts (pdf)
The screenshots in this handout show you how to use the Biological Abstracts database to find journal articles for your assignments. A topic from the field of evolution is used as an example, but the search process is similar for any other biology topic you may happen to have.
Biological Abstracts - Quick Guide
How to use the Biological Abstracts database.

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