Sometimes you need a concise definition or explanation of a concept. Our online reference collections can get you just that:
Since Sustainability topics are multidisciplinary, the following databases are also broad in their coverage of issues and subjects. For more specific recommendations, go to the tab on this guide that best matches your topic.
Access ebooks and scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, sciences, and the social sciences. Journal content is often not available until 1+ years after publication.
GreenFILE is a database focused entirely on environmental topics, across many different disciplines. It is an ideal place to begin any research that is concerned with renewable energy or materials, or with sustainability.
Full text for thousands of peer-reviewed journals and general interest sources across many subject areas.
Want to do more sustainability research? Start with our Research Guide for Sustainability. The guide uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals (pictured below) to define the scope of sustainability.
As you come across articles reporting on studies or topics in sustainability (or really any topic), it is helpful to know whether you are looking at the original research published in a scholarly journal, or if you are looking at reporting being done about it.
Remember that the fact that an article is published in a scholarly journal or a popular magazine does not make it inherently good or bad. The articles have different purposes and will provide different types of information. It is generally a good idea to look at the original research to find out more about how a study was done or its limitations. A popular magazine article may not give you that detail, but it may still do a good job explaining the information.
Things in this article indicate it is likely a scholarly article:
Click the image to get to the full article online.
Ripple, WJ, Wolf, C, Newsome, TM, et al. Are we eating the world's megafauna to extinction?. Conservation Letters. 2019; 12:e12627. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12627
This is an overview of the research, published by Science Daily, that collects stories about scientific research and publishes it for an audience that is interested in keeping up with science news, but isn't necessarily an expert in the field.
Some things that indicate that this is not the original research:
Click on the image to get to the article online.
Oregon State University. "Humans' meat consumption pushing Earth's biggest fauna toward extinction." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 February 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206101055.htm>
This is an article aimed at communicating science research to the general public. This article does not cite the research in the original article in the other tabs (this article was written before that research was published), but it is still talking about a similar concept and does refer to original research published in the journal Science.
Things in this article that indicate it is not the original study:
Click the image to get to the article online.
Rowland, Michael Pellman. “The Most Effective Way To Save The Planet.” Forbes. Accessed December 2, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2018/06/12/save-the-planet/.
Here are links to reports, studies and other information that were used in the Sustainability video you watched.
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