Brooklyn College Library LibGuides Home: Urban Sustainability Research Guide: Articles & Databases

Earth & Environmental Sciences Databases

GreenFILE (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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This database covers all aspects of human impact on the environment, including topics like global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy. GreenFILE connects environmental issues with disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health, and technology.
GeoRef (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Temporarily unavailable This comprehensive geoscience database includes over 3.2 million bibliographic records covering mineralogy, crystallography, silicate and non-silicate mineralogy, sourced from 3,500 journals, books, maps, conference papers, reports, and theses. GeoRef adds over 100,000 references annually.
GeoScienceWorld This link opens in a new window
GeoScienceWorld (GSW) is a nonprofit collaboration of six leading earth science societies and one institute, dedicated to making geoscience research and related information accessible online.
Environmental Studies and Policy (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
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This resource addresses environmental concerns with access to over 5.4 million articles from 300+ journals and book references from Delmar, including titles like Soil, Science, and Management and Introduction to Agronomy, Food, Crops, & Environment.

Social Sciences Databases

SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Excellent resource offers comprehensive coverage of the literature of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study.
Sociology (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This collection provides full-text coverage of many core titles in sociology, covering topics such as community and mental health services, crisis intervention, the family and social welfare, gerontology, poverty and homelessness, professional issues in social work, social services in addiction, social work education, social work practice and more.
Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This database abstracts and indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Cited references are included for many journal articles.
Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
A collection of review articles in specific disciplines in science and social science. Each issue series contains 12 to 40 authoritative comprehensive review articles, covering the major journal articles on a specific topic during the preceding few years.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is a comprehensive abstract and citation database curated by leading experts. Researchers use its powerful discovery tools to explore research trends, monitor newly published work, and identify subject experts. Advanced search capabilities and analytics tools enable easy data visualization, comparison, and export.
Urban Studies Abstracts (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
This bibliographic research database covers subjects of key relevance to the discipline of Urban Studies, including urban affairs, community development and urban history.
America: History & Life (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
America: History and Life is the definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

General Sciences Databases of Interest

ScienceDirect (Elsevier) This link opens in a new window
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ScienceDirect is a leading full-text scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters from more than 2,500 peer-reviewed journals and more than 11,000 books.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is a comprehensive abstract and citation database curated by leading experts. Researchers use its powerful discovery tools to explore research trends, monitor newly published work, and identify subject experts. Advanced search capabilities and analytics tools enable easy data visualization, comparison, and export.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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Good for all topics, this comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database provides access to almost 9,000 full-text periodicals and peer-reviewed journals.
SpringerLink - Journals and Books This link opens in a new window
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SpringerLink is Springer's online full-text archive for journals and books. SpringerLink currently offers over 1,250 fully peer-reviewed journals and a growing roster of book series, comprising more than 3,000 books online.
Wiley Online - Journals and Books This link opens in a new window
A database of abstracts and full text from journals and books from across disciplines - especially strong in the Social Sciences. Use limiters to focus results by discipline.

Economics Databases

EconLit with Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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EconLit, the American Economic Association's electronic database, plus full text for over 600 journals, is the world's foremost source of references to economic literature. EconLit adheres to the high quality standards long recognized by subscribers to the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) and is a reliable source for book reviews, citations and abstracts to economic research dating back to 1969. It provides links to full text articles in all fields of economics, including capital markets, country studies, econometrics, economic forecast.

Research Papers in Economics (RePEc)
RePEc is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in 87 countries to enhance the dissemination of research in Economics and related sciences. The heart of the project is a decentralized bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, books chapters and software components, all maintained by volunteers. The collected data are then used in various services that serve the collected metadata to users or enhance it.

Business Source Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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Covers journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Additional full text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more. Indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Unlock a treasure trove of knowledge with JSTOR! Dive into over 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources across 75 disciplines.

Government Resources

General US government resources for environmental sciences:

Geology of the New York City Region (USGS) This resource provides access to a trove of material about major areas in the New York City Region (Highlands Province, Sedimentary Appalachians, Mesozoic Basins, Coastal Plain), Quaternary Geology, Basic Geologic Principles, and NYC's Physical Environment. Users can find detailed maps, illustrations, color photographs, as well as a lengthy list of secondary sources.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) This site provides a wide range of unique national, state, and local environmental information. Tabs at the top allow users to navigate through the EPA's abundant and complex information from a news, scientific, or legal perspective. "My Environment" enables the user to search for environmental information based on ZIP code and compiles data from other state and federal agencies to provide a comprehensive view of an area's environmental conditions.
US Geological Survey (USGS) The USGS serves the Nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. The USGS also has an online, searchable library. Its library is the largest library for earth sciences in the world. The library system includes four libraries and is part of the Geographic Information Office of the USGS. Another important resource is the USGS Photographic Library, which offers access to more than 30,000 color and black-and-white photographs taken during geologic studies of the U.S. These images provide a visual history of the discovery, development, and sciences of the United States and its Geological Survey. Some photographs have been used in USGS publications, but most have never been published.

Earthquakes:

National Earthquake Information Center The mission of the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) is to rapidly determine location and size of all destructive earthquakes worldwide and to immediately disseminate this information to concerned national and international agencies, scientists and the general public.
NOAA Tsunami Featuring categories such as Basics, Big Picture, Warning, Preparedness, and more, this site offers both basic and in-depth coverage of the earthquakes that create tsunamis, their warning systems, as well as providing preparation and hazard assessment information. The Education section provides resources for teachers and elementary students. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the government agency with primary responsibility for providing tsunami warnings to the United States.
USGS Tsunamis & Earthquakes This site, hosted by the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, is not a monitoring service. Instead, Tsunamis & Earthquakes contains overview documents with details about recent earthquakes and resulting tsunamis since 1998, including a Research Studies section covering past events. Researchers can use this site to find basic information, animations, research studies, and analyses.
National Earthquake Engineering Online Archive (NISEE) University of California Berkeley The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive is a database of significant, publicly-funded research and development literature, photographs, data, and software in earthquake, structural, and geotechnical engineering. It includes full text for EERC, SEMM, and PEER reports published at UC Berkeley, the NISEE software library, and images from EQIIS, including the Steinbrugge, Godden, and Kozak collections.

Global warming and climatology:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Climate Monitoring Climate Monitoring is a service of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. It is divided into 12 sections, each offering links to reports, data, maps, and other resources.
EPA Climate Change EPA's Climate Change Site offers comprehensive information on the issue of climate change in a way that is accessible and meaningful to all parts of society.
NASA Global Climate Change This multimedia site (subtitled "NASA's Eyes on the Earth") offers photos, movies, animations and interactive graphics as well as news and data from NASA's research into climate change.

Mapping Resources

OpenGeoSci OpenGeoSci is a free, map-based discovery interface providing geographic searching for more than 300,000 maps, cross-sections, charts, tables, and other high-value content from GeoScienceWorld (GSW) publications. Search results can be filtered by journal, topical category, publication date, zooming in on the map, or an area filter. Selecting a result on the map will open a content box that displays the data result, caption information, citation information, and a link to the original publication.
NRCS Soil Surveys This website is part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey, an effort of Federal and State agencies, universities, and professional societies to deliver science-based soil information. The organization provides links to information about geospatial research, soil surveys, soil data, and world soils. The NRCS site also features images, posters, maps, and charts, as well as a soil glossary.
USGS Maps and Data USGS maps range from detailed local areas to the world. Because they can show many kinds of information, they are excellent for a wide range of uses.

USGS Quadrangle Maps: The Brooklyn College Geology Department is a depository for US Geological Survey Quadrangle Maps in print. To access these maps, please contact Guillermo Rocha at (718) 951-2887 or GRocha@brooklyn.cuny.edu

E-Journals Search

Search for Journals by Title or ISSN

Environmental News

Alternative Press Index (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Indexes nearly 300 alternative, radical, and left periodicals on cultural, economic, political, and social change. Covers theories and practices of socialism and revolution, including ecology, democracy, anarchism, feminism, organized labor, indigenous peoples, and LGBTQ+ issues.
Coverage Includes:
- Socialism
- Revolution
- Ecology
- Democracy
- Anarchism
- Feminism
- Organized labor
- Indigenous peoples
- Gay, lesbian, queer, trans, LGBTQ+
- New social movements

Energy, Resources, Etc.

International Energy Agency (IEA) Data and Statistics This link opens in a new window The IEA is an autonomous organization focused on ensuring reliable, affordable, and clean energy for its 29 member countries and beyond. Its four main areas are energy security, economic development, environmental awareness, and global engagement. The IEA collects, assesses, and disseminates energy statistics on supply and demand, energy prices, public RD&D, energy efficiency, and other key indicators.

World Resources Institute

Urban Sustainability Research Guide: Articles & Databases