How to find information in the environmental sciences.

1. Finding Information in the
Interdisciplinary Field of
Environmental Chemistry
Bruce Slutsky
Robert Van Houten Library
Bruce.Slutsky@njit.edu

2. Disciplines within Environmental
Science
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Atmospheric Science
Biology
Chemistry
Climate Change
Conservation
Ecology
Geology
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Global Warming
Hazardous Wastes
Oceanography
Pollution
Population
Soil Science
Sustainability

3. Retrieving Information
We are flooded with scientific, technical and
policy information. Scientists, engineers
and students must be able to find
information at all levels from a multitude of
information resources available to them.

4. AIM of This Tutorial
 To show how information learned in the
Research Roadmaps can be applied to the
environmental sciences
 To progress from a general to a more
specific search on a topic
 To become familiar with some subject
specific databases

5. Review of Research Roadmaps
(HUM 101)
 Library Home Page (http://library.njit.edu)
 Finding a book from the NJIT Library
Catalog
 Google “Phenomenon”
 List of Library Databases

6. Evaluating Web Sites
Authority
 Who is responsible for the contents of the page?
 If the site is sponsored by an organization, is this
information prominently and clearly displayed?
 Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the
page's sponsor? Is there a phone number or
postal address to contact for more information?
(Simply an email address is not enough.)
 Is it clear who wrote the material and are the
author's qualifications for writing on this topic
clearly stated?

7. Evaluating Web Sites
Accuracy
 Are the sources for any factual information clearly
listed so they can be verified in another source?
 If data are included, is the source of the data
indicated?
 Is the information free of grammatical, spelling,
and typographical errors? (These kinds of errors
not only indicate a lack of quality control, but also
can actually produce inaccuracies in information.)
 Is it clear who has ultimate responsibility for the
accuracy of the content of the material?
 Does the data/information make sense?

8. Environmental Protection Agency
(http://www.epa.gov)
Laws and Regulations
Environmental Issues
Environmental Test Methods and
Guidelines
 Chemicals: Scientific Review and
Assessment
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9. Topics within Environmental Science
 There is an infinite number of topics with the
general subject of environmental science
 As an example, we will search for
information on climate change.
– In general
– Correlation between climate change and air
pollution

10. Looking for Books on Climate
Change
 More general information on climate change
are found in books
 Can search on:
– Climate change as keyword phase
– Climatic changes as subject phrase
– Global warming as subject phrase
 Most books are downstairs in Circ
Collection
 Some electronic books are available

11. Is Wikipedia Reliable?
 Can it be trusted as a source of information
in the life sciences?

12. Advantages and Disadvantages of
the Wikipedia
Advantages:
 Good for obtaining
background knowledge
on a topic
 Articles can be revised
and edited quickly.
Information about
recent events will
appear there
Disadvantages:
 Does not undergo the
peer review process
 Anyone can write or
edit an article
anonymously
 Suggestion: Do not
cite it in your
bibliography

13. Encyclopedias
 Encyclopedias introduce researchers to specialize
fields of study. Traditional print encylopedias in
environmental science include:
 Encyclopedia of environmental science and
engineering
 Encyclopedia of the environment

14. Looking for Articles on Climate
Change
 Magazine Articles (written by a journalist)
 Journal Articles (Original Research)
– Peer Reviewed

15. Some Magazines with Articles in
Environmental Science
Business Week
Chemical Week
Economist
Discover
Scientific American
These magazines will obviously have articles
on other topics
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16. Peer Reviewed Literature
 Scholarly works that generally represent the
latest original research in the field
 Researcher sends manuscript to a journal
editor
 Editor sends manuscript to other experts
(peers) in the field to evaluate it
 Peer reviewer either accepts or rejects the
manuscript for publication

17. Some Journals Available at NJIT
with Articles in Environmental
Science
Journal of Climate
Climatic Change
Environmental Science and Technology
Nature *
Science*
Global Change Biology
* Notice – these journals are very
multidisciplinary
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18. List of Databases Available at the
NJIT library
 Entire list may be found at
http://library.njit.edu/databases/index.php
 In this tutorial we will examine
– Academic Search Premier
– Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
– Scopus
– Scifinder (Chemical Abstracts)
– Search All on NJIT Library Home Page
Each database differs in coverage, search interface and
special features

19. Academic Search Premier
 A large scholarly, multidisciplinary full text
database designed specifically for academic
institutions. It offers critical information from
many sources found in no other database.
 Contains indexing and abstracts for over
8,450 journals, with full text for more than
4,650 of those titles.

20. Special Features in Academic
Search Premier
Can Limit to Peer Review Journals
Can Limit Search to Full-Text Journals
Will suggest terms to narrow search
Gives a link to help from the NJIT Library
Will automatically generate citations in the
format you need (i.e MLA or APA)
 Can Export to EndNote
 Can Save in a Folder for Future Reference
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21. Scopus
 Scopus is a large multidisciplinary abstract and
citation database. It covers:
 Over 16,500 titles from more than 4,000
international publishers, including coverage of
– 15,400 peer-reviewed journals (inc > 1200 Open Access
journals)
– 575 trade publications
– 315 book series
– Extensive conference coverage (3,6 million conference
papers)

22. Scopus – Special Features
 Tabular display of results allows you to easily sort results
according to date, relevance, authors, source title and
number of citations (cited-by’s).
 Refine Results gives you a quick overview of all of your
results according to source title, author name, year,
document type and subject area
 Allows links to the full-text
 Can output to MLA, APA and other bibliographic formats
 Can export into EndNote
 Can Set up alerts via e-mail or RSS feed

23. Lexis-Nexis
 Full-text of more than 350 newspapers from the U.S.
and around the world, many same day of publication,
plus the most extensive archives available anywhere of
The New York Times (dating back to 1980) and The
Washington Post (dating back to 1977)
 More than 300 magazines and journals and over 600
newsletters, including: American Journalism Review,
Business Week, The Economist, Library Journal, New
Republic, Newsweek, and Variety
 Hard-to-find broadcast transcripts from the major
television and radio networks, including ABC, CBS,
CNN, FOX, NBC and NPR

24. Scifinder
 Electronic Version of Chemical Abstracts
(1907 to the present)
 It contains many links to full-text articles
 Searchable by chemical substance,
reaction, research topic, author or affiliation
 It is accessible from a web site. Users must
register to use it

25. Search All at NJIT
 Can Search Several NJIT Databases at
once
 It uses the EbscoHost software (same as
Academic Search Premier)
 Easily limit to
– Peer Reviewed Articles
– Articles available in full-text at NJIT

26. Sample Search
 Let’s do a search on any correlation
between climate change and air pollution
using:
– Academic Search Premier
– Scopus
– Lexis-Nexis
– Scifinder
– Search all

27. Devising Optimal Search Strategies
 Choose the proper database(s)
– Be aware of the scope and limitations
 Use all relevant search terms and appropriate
Boolean logic
– Think of concepts not words
 Devise a search strategy for:
– Precise search
 Expand strategy if too few are found
– Exhaustive search
 Cut down if too many citations are retrieved

28. Evaluating the Retrieved References
 Look at the title of the article
 Read the abstract which is a one paragraph
summary of the article to help you decide if
it is relevant.
 Read the entire paper, incorporate the
information into your assignment

29. For Assistance
 Bruce Slutsky
– slutsky@njit.edu or 973-642-4950
– askalibrarian@njit.edu or 973-596-3210
 Chat and e-mail reference service
– http://library.njit.edu/researchhelpdesk/askus.php
 Twitter
– NJITREF
 Reference Desk
– Phone at 973-596-3210
– Come see us in person