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Environmental Sciences: Find Articles

Article Search Engines

The following list contains multiple resources for finding journal articles on environmental topics.  One of theses databases may fit you best, or you may need to search multiple databases for the best results.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a good resource, just keep in mind that not all journal articles can be found there.  You will be able to link to some full text automatically.  If you search from on campus, you will automatically see the Find It @ MiamiOH link. Try to get a hold of full text from that link, or ask me.

Search Tip: Use the Find It! Button

When you search a database for a "Full Text" item, you are only searching through that particular database for the document in full-text, and not our entire collection.  An item may exist as a "Full Text" selection within a different database.

If you don't find an item as full-text in the database you're searching, use the "Find It" button to cross-search other databses for that same item.  You may discover that we have electronic access to that material after all.

Using Journal Literature

Most indexes in environmental science will label at least two different types of research articles:

Primary article: A primary article will directly report the authors' research findings.  The details of experiments they conducted will be reported.  Most primary articles follow the "IMRAD" format familiar to students from writing lab reports: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

Review article: This type of article will summarize the research that has been done in a certain research area.  Reviews can be a good entry point into reading on a particular research topic, since some terms will be defined, and important experiments and results discussed.  Web of Science is an excellent database for locating reviews.