Articles

You can find articles on your geography topic by searching in journal databases. The sections below will introduce you to recommended geography databases and answer questions about journal databases:

Recommended journal databases for geography research

How do I find articles on my topic in a journal database?

Tutorial: How to Find Journal Articles

What is a journal database?

What is a peer-reviewed journal?

Recommended journal databases for geography research

You must access the databases below through the Libraries' website when you are on-campus or off-campus. When you do, you are recognized as being affiliated to UNT and allowed into the database. You will be asked to enter your EUID and password when you are off-campus.

Note: The links below take you to alphabetical lists of resources. Scroll down the list to find the journal database.

 
Academic Search Complete  - Recommended for freshmen and sophomores

Academic Search Complete is a scholarly collection providing full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, life and medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Full text is available for nearly 4,600 scholarly publications, with coverage dating back to 1975. 

Agricola - recommended for all audiences

Agricola (AGRICultural OnLine Access) via EbsoHost serves as the catalog and index to the collections of the National Agricultural Library. Journal articles, books, conference proceedings, and technical reports are included in Agricola. The earliest information is from the 15th century. Agricola covers all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines, plus geography, geology, urban issues, and earth and environmental sciences. Full text is not available through Agricola but UNT may have the information. Please check the UNT Library Catalog.

Anthropology Plus - recommended for upperclassmen, graduate students and faculty

While the focus is anthropology, this index also provides coverage of human and cultural geography, geology and archaeology.

Environmental Issues & Policy Index via EBSCOHost offers coverage in applicable 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. It provides indexing and detailed abstracts for over 1,000 international journals. Coverage ranges as far back as 1950. 

Ethnic NewsWatch - recommended for all audiences

Newspaper, magazine and journal articles published by the ethnic, minority, and native press in the United States presenting a variety of perspectives on national and international topics that go beyond those represented in the mainstream media. Searches can be limited to ethnic groups. Coverage starts in 1959.

JSTOR provides access to archived backfiles of journals in Arts & Sciences, Language & Literature, General Science, Ecology & Botany, and Music. The full-text of journals is provided for each title beginning with Volume 1. Recent volumes may or may not be included, depending on the agreement between JSTOR and the publishers.

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LexisNexis Academic - recommended for upperclassmen, graduate students, and faculty

Includes local, national, and international news resources and legal resources including case law, laws reviews, and codes & statutes.

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International (1972 - Present)
PAIS Archive (1915-1976)

Citations to books, journal articles, government documents and other reports related to public and social policy issues.

ProQuest Online - recommended for freshmen and sophomores

Proquest Online provides searching for ABI/INFORM Global, Research Library, and ProQuest Newpapers. The Research Library is a multidisciplinary database including more than 3,950 titles—over 2,700 in full text—from 1971 forward. It features a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers.

Sage Urban Studies Abstracts

Citations and abstracts of important recent urban studies journal articles and reports.

Science and Technology Collection - recommended for freshmen and sophomores

Science & Technology Collection by EbscoHost contains over 800 leading full text journals covering scientific and technical information. Subjects covered include astrophysics, biology, chemistry, computer technology, geology, physics, archaeology, and materials science.

Coverage includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of social sciences journals.

Social Sciences Citation Index (1981 - 1994) - recommended for upperclassmen, graduate students and faculty

Covering the social sciences, arts & humanities, and sciences, the Web of Science provides information about journal articles which includes links to other articles cited.

Web of Science Citation Databases (1995 - Present) - recommended for upperclassmen, graduate students and faculty

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How do I find articles on my topic in a journal database ?

You find articles about your topic by searching the records (or article entries) in a journal database. Some databases (indexes) have records that contain just the article's citation, and others (abstracts) have records that contain the citation and article summary (abstract). Some databases have article records that contain the full text of the article. All  databases will look through the article records for the search terms you enter and pull up only records that include those terms.

Most databases have both a basic search screen and an advanced search screen where you can enter your search terms. I highly recommend using the advanced search because you can use Boolean statements to build a more tailored search that will retrieve more relevant articles. If you've never done Boolean searching, don't worry because it's not difficult. See Search Strategies to Find Journal Articles and Save Time for instructions.

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What is a journal database?

 A journal database is a collection of information from articles, which is gathered from a group of journals. The database is called an index when the only information collected is the citation of each article. The database is called an abstract when the citation and abstract (or summary) of each article is collected. When the article information is added to the database, it is given subject headings to describe the content of the article. The combined information forms a record for each article.

What is a peer-reviewed journal?

A peer-reviewed journal is one that requires review and approval of submitted articles before they are published. Most scientific journals will have a large group of reviewers, all of whom have a specialty in the journal's field. When an article is received, it is sent out to the reviewers who are most familiar with the subject matter. The reviewers carefully read the article to check whether the experiments were done correctly, the results are valid and the conclusions are logical. If the reviewers approve the article, they usually send suggestions back to the author for further experiments or improvements in the writing. When the revisions are completed and approved, then the article is finally published.

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Contents:

What are journal packages?

How should journal packages be used in geography research?

Recommended journal packages for geography research

What Are Journal Packages?

Journal packages are electronic collections of journals that are usually produced by one publisher. For example, the publisher Elsevier produces all of the journals in the journal package Science Direct and Wiley Publishing produces all of the journals in Wiley InterScience.

How Should Journal Packages Be Used in Geography Research?

Journal packages should not be used to find articles on a subject. Topic searches should be done in a journal database (abstract and index). Journal packages should only be used to find already identified articles in full-text.

The reasons for the above statements are:

1. Journal packages usually contain 100s of journals, while journal databases index and/or abstract 1000s of journals, so you get a more extensive search with a journal database.
2. Journal databases have more sophisticated search features, so you can do a more tailored search in them, then in journal packages.
3. If a publisher has an agenda, that bias may be reflected in some or all of the titles in a journal package, thus you would only get one perspective on a topic.

 Appropriate uses of journal packages are:

1. Finding a full-text article that is not available in a journal database. Many times the Find Full Text link in an article record in a journal database will take you directly to a journal package. If it does not, you can search for the journal title in the catalog and then find the link to the correct journal package.
2. Setting up a journal alert so that you will get an email every time a new issue of a journal is posted in the journal package. Most journal packages allow you to create a personal account in which you can create journal and other kinds of alerts. For more information,  see the Email Alerting Services webpage.

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Recommended Journal Packages for Geography Research

Sage Journals Online

The SAGE Journals Online database indexes over 220 full-text journals; UNT has access to ~165 of them. When searching, limit the search to SAGE conent available to me. You will see on the search results page whether you have access to a particular article. The SAGE Full-Text Collections include Communication Studies, Criminology, Education, Management & Organization Studies, Materials Science, Health Sciences, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Urban Studies & Planning.

ScienceDirect provides full text access to over 1800 journals from Elsevier and Academic Press, representing all areas of science, medicine, and technology, as well as inter-disciplinary titles. Coverage is from 1995 to current, but some titles in physics, chemistry, and mathematics begin with volume 1, regardless of the year.

Wiley Online Library

Full text access from 1997 to current for over 350 Wiley journals in biology, chemistry, mathematics, behavioral sciences, and computer sciences. 

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