LibGuides: GEOG: Geography: Articles in Databases

Learn database search strategies and view the most useful library and open-access databases for geography research on this page.

Quick Tips for Most Article Databases

Search Keywords

Keyword searches are often the default search in databases. With a keyword search, the database searches for every instance of your search keyword or keywords as you typed them. If that word or word(s) appear anywhere in the:

title
summary
publication information
metadata
text or content itself

That source will be in your results list, even if it is not actually about your topic or has very little information related to it.

(Google works similarly, but does a lot of prediction and guesswork through its algorithm about what you are looking for that our library databases may not.)

Search Filters and Limiters

Most library databases will let you filter your results by:

Full-Text (apply if you want to be able to access, view, or read whatever you see in the results immediately).
Date or Publication Date
Source Type (use if you only want to search for specific types of content - like journal articles, books, newspapers, streaming video, etc).
Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed (apply to see only these types of sources)

Sometimes you can choose these options when you first enter your search but sometimes you need to apply them after you have a search started.

Accessing Full-Text

If you selected Full-Text as a search limiter, you should see a link somewhere on the page to the PDF or HTML text version of the source. Depending on the database, this link may be in different places.

Sometimes you may see Open in..., View record in..., or Full-Text Finder in EBSCO Discovery Service, which means the source is located in another database. It's usually just a few more clicks to get to the PDF or HTML text in it's original location if that is the case.

Suggested Library Databases

AtoZ World Food This link opens in a new window AtoZ World Food is the only food database that contains traditional recipes for 174 countries of the world in all course categories: appetizers, soups, salads, breads, main courses, side dishes, desserts, snacks, and beverages. It also covers food culture for each country in six categories: National Cuisine, Regional Cuisine, Daily Meals, Dining Etiquette, Special Occasion Foods, and Food Trivia.
Gale in Context Science This link opens in a new window This database covers all of your science needs! All branches of science, including health and medicine, are represented. Current and controversial science topics are also covered here.
GreenFILE This link opens in a new window GreenFILE contains articles and eBooks that cover all aspects of human impact on the environment. including global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full-text scholarly articles from journals and books covering the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window One of the essential databases to your NCC research experience! Search for your topic here to find articles from scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers and other reference sources. Many articles are full text.
Salem Online This link opens in a new window A collection of ebooks covering business, careers, health, history, science, controversial issues, and social sciences.

EBSCO Discovery Service

Want to find anything the library has related to your Geography topic? EBSCO Discovery Service searches across all of the library's collections. Be sure to apply the Full-Text filter to your search to see items you can access immediately.

EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) This link opens in a new window

Suggested Open Access databases

CORE CORE is the world’s largest aggregator of research papers from open-access repositories and journals.

PLOS One This link opens in a new window PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.

ScienceOpen Open-access research articles covering science. Requires the creation of a free account in order to view articles.
SSRN (Social Science Research Network) Preprint versions of scholarly research articles in the social sciences, humanities, life sciences, and health sciences, among others. Most articles are available in full-text.

Browse Selected Geography Journals & Publications

All Earth Earth science-focused open access research journal.
American Geographical Society's Focus on Geography Quarterly journal with articles written by well-known academic and professional geographers.
Canadian Geographic Magazine published by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Typically contains articles on physical, historical, political, and environmental geography.
Cartographica This journal subscription is on a 6-month delay for the most recent articles.
Earth Interactions Peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, and Association of American Geographers.
GEO: Geography and Environment A fully open access international journal publishing original articles across geographical and environmental research.
The Geographical Journal A quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society. This journal subscription has a 1-year delay for the most recent articles.
Geography Academic journal published by the Geographical Association.
Journal of Maps A peer-reviewed, open access journal in maps, spatial diagrams, geospatial products & cartography.
National Geographic American monthly magazine published by the National Geographic Society. Known for its photojournalism. Our subscription has a 3-month delay for the most recent articles.

You can use the libraries' Publication Finder tool to identify and browse additional geography focused journals.

View our video tutorials to see search demonstrations of these and other databases

You can find more video tutorials for our databases on the NCC Libraries YouTube channel.

If you don't see a video on a channel for a database or resource you want to use, you may be able to find one from another channel by searching the rest of YouTube for the database name.

When the library doesn't have access to an article you want...

You may discover an article that would be useful for your topic, only to find that the library does not have full-text access to it through our databases. If that happens, you can submit an interlibrary loan request, and we will see if another library with access to full-text of that article is willing to share it with us. Most often, the articles will be shared with you by email, but they may take 2-3 days to arrive. Work with a librarian if you need help identifying books to interlibrary loan or assistance with the request.