LibGuides: Geography: Bibliographic databases

Introduction - what are bibliographic databases?

Bibliographic databases (often just referred to as 'databases') allow you to search across a wide range of journals and this is the best way to find relevant academic information on your topic. The bibliographic databases relevant to Geography are listed below.

These databases contain references and abstracts and will link you to the full text of the article where QUB has a subscription to the e-journal. NB you will not get the full text for every article you find in a database, but you can apply for the article on Inter Library Loan if it is not available via QUB.

Constructing a search strategy

Before you start searching the databases, you will need to construct a search strategy:

Break your search topic into key concepts
For each concept, think of keywords and synonyms
Connect similar keywords using the OR command
Combine different concepts using the AND command
Use brackets to group OR terms together

eg (teenager OR adolescent OR adolescence) AND (autism OR autistic spectrum disorder OR asperger's syndrome OR pervasive developmental disorder)

For a more detailed description of search techniques, please see separate page on Designing a search strategy.

Key bibliographic databases relevant to Geography

The key bibliographic databases relevant to Geography are listed below. These are the best databases to start with when you are doing your literature search. Start with Web of Science or Scopus as they are the biggest databases and cover all subject areas. If you need any help, please contact me at c.a.dunlop@qub.ac.uk

GreenFILE This link opens in a new window GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. This resource offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet. The database contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Historical Abstracts is an exceptional resource that covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more - essential for libraries supporting upper-division and graduate research. This authoritative database provides indexing of more than 2,300 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955. History and social science researchers have used Historical Abstracts to discover significant and groundbreaking work for more than 50 years.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) This link opens in a new window This database includes over two million bibliographic references to journal articles and to books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951. It is unique in its broad coverage of international material and incorporates over 100 languages and countries. Over 2,800 journals are regularly indexed and some 7,000 books are included each year.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences This link opens in a new window JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that enables discovery, access, and preservation of scholarly content. It enables access to a full-text journals.
JSTOR Ireland This link opens in a new window An interdisciplinary collection of materials from and about Ireland. When complete, the Ireland Collection will contain a minimum of 75 journals, including journals with moving walls between 1 and 5 years and ceased journals from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Over 200 monographs and 2,500 manuscript pages will also be included.
Sociological Abstracts (1952 - current) 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. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers and working papers. Cited references are included for many journal articles.
Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new window Access to citation databases, journals and conference proceedings with current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Includes Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index and Emerging Sources Citation Index.

Databases relevant to other subjects

If your area of interest overlaps with other subject areas, you can look at the other Subject Guides to find more relevant Databases eg History: Key Databases, Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work: Key Databases or Key Databases: Anthropology

Databases A-Z

The full range of databases available at QUB can be found in the Databases A-Z list, but note that this list will contain journal and e-book databases as well as bibliographic databases; bibliographic databases such as the ones listed above are the best way to conduct a comprehensive literature review.

Top Tip - Reference lists and Citation searching

If you find a relevant article, an easy way to find other articles on the same topic is to look at the Reference list/Bibliography. Most databases also have a Citation search feature which means you can link to other articles that have referred to your original paper.

Keeping up to date

You can set up email alerts within bibliographic databases to find out what new articles are being published in your area of interest; check out the Help screens in each database for instructions of how to do this.