Environmental Science

To locate a specific journal
Use the ejournals A-Z link at the top right of the catalogue web page.

Please note that to find print only journals, you will need to search the catalogue for the journal title.

To locate a specific article
Use the Advanced Options in the catalogue. Or use the basic search and type your journal article title inside "quotation marks". Or use the eJournals link, find your journal, and search for the title using the database/journal search option.

Free full text journals available online:

• Directory of Open Access Journals
• Environmental Evidence
• BioOne Open Access Journals

Your lecturer may require you to find peer-reviewed journal articles.  Here are some tips on finding out if your journal is a peer-reviewed journal:

There are 4 ways to check for peer-reviewed status:

• does the database allow you to restrict your search to peer reviewed publications (like Ebsco)
• does the database offer a way to check by clicking the journal title, or a browse title link (like APA-FT)
• search a specialised database such as Ulrichsweb. In Ulrichsweb you are hoping to see a little black and white striped referee shirt.
• search the web for the home page of the journal. Look for an information for authors/contributors page. Does it tell authors that their work will be subject to a peer-reviewed process.

Also remember to check that your article is scholarly and not just an opinion or commentary piece that happens to be in a peer-reviewed publication.  Some good indicators:

• the author gives their academic qualifications/affiliations with a university
• often there is an abstract
• substantial document - longer than 2 pages
• list of references at the end.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML based format used for content distribution and syndication. Subscribing to RSS feeds allows you to receive custom, up-to-date information without having to regularly check the website for updates.

When you are searching, always remember to set Google Scholar preferences - this means that you will be able to directly access any articles/journals that the SCU Library has subscribed to.

Wildcards

* Search for a word stem or truncation

e.g. engineer* returns engineer, engineers, engineering

? Search for words with spelling variation

e.g. wom?n returns woman, women

AND vap?r returns vapor, vapour

Boolean Operators

And: find documents containing all of your search terms.

Example: civil and structural will find documents that contain both words.

Or: find documents containing at least one of your search terms. You would use or to connect synonyms or closely related terms.

Example: concrete or cement will find documents that contain either word.

Not: exclude words from your results. Not should be used with caution as you could inadvertently exclude relevant results.

Example: tunnelling not railroad will only locate documents that include the word tunnelling, but only if the document does not contain the word railroad.

Search Structure

Phrase searching: Some databases will treat two or more words entered into the search box as a phrase, while others require you to place a phrase in double quotation marks.

Example: "fluid mechanics" will only find documents where the whole phrase is present.

Nesting: The order in which search engines execute your commands is not always obvious. You can use round brackets to control the search sequence.

Example: the search term, dams and (tunnelling or excavation) will find documents that contain one of the words in brackets - i.e. tunnelling or excavation - but only if they also contain the word 'dams'.