Getting Started
Environmental & Water Resources Topic Ideas and Search Terms
Useful sources for finding recent research in all sciences, where you might find interesting topics, are the weekly magazines Science News and New Scientist. In addition, the premier journals SCIENCE and NATURE include the latest innovative research across the sciences. Premier licensed water resources journals include Water Research and Journal of Hydrology. Top open-access water resources titles include Water and Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
Once you’ve picked your summary topic, you will need to think of search terms to use for locating articles and other publications. Use UC Library Search listed under Background below (for books, DVDs and more) and use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Each library subject database also has subject lists/thesauri that can help you precisely search your topic, e.g CAB Abstracts has a thesaurus which includes CABICODES; BIOSIS Previews has Concept Codes and more.
[Original content by Ruth Gustafson]
Key Resources for class
Before diving into your topic, locating some background information on the topic can be very helpful in refining your question. Try these book and reference resources to better develop your personal knowledge on a topic.
See the books/ebooks section for suggestions of terms for UC Davis Library Catalog searching.
- Advanced Search: UC Davis Library CatalogSearch UC Library Search for books, journals (not articles) and other materials available online or in the library.
- ENVIROnetBASEPutting resources from both sides of the equation into one collection, ENVIROnetBASE supplies not only how-tos for remediating environmental issues but also the science behind them. With contributions from leading experts in these fields, the coverage ranges from environmental protection and remediation to green and sustainable practices, biofuels, and renewable energy.
- ENGnetBaseA large collection of online engineering handbooks, full-text and searchable. Extremely useful for: expanding your topic; getting a broad overview of your topic; or getting a highly focused book reference (available as a PDF, and substantially shorter than a typical book). More than 4,320 books online, with handbooks in civil, mechanical, electrical, industrial, and mining engineering
After doing some background research, dive into your topic with these core databases (see databases section for a wider selection of databases).
- Agricultural & Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
This database covers environmental science topics from disciplines such as atmospheric science, biology, biotechnology, ecology, engineering, and microbiology. It also covers agricultural research including agricultural economics, animal and veterinary sciences, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, food and human nutrition, forestry, and plant sciences. It includes Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) and Digests and all the records from the National Agricultural Library's AGRICOLA database.
[Coverage: 1960-present] - GeoRef This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Covers worldwide technical literature on geology, paleontology, and geophysics. Covers the geology of North America from 1666 to present and geology outside of North America from 1933 to present. Subject coverage areas include: areal geology, economic geology, engineering geology, environmental geology, extraterrestrial geology, geochemistry, geochronology, geophysics, hydrogeology and hydrology, marine geology and oceanography, mathematical geology, mineralogy and crystallography, paleontology, petrology, seismology, stratigraphy, structural geology, surficial geology. - Compendex This link opens in a new windowCompendex is the broadest and most complete engineering literature database available in the world with over 22 million indexed records from 77 countries across 190 engineering disciplines.
[Coverage: 1884-present]
