• Keywords and Search Terms
• Exploring Your Topic
• Science Resource Center
• ProQuest
• Web Searches

Introduction

The purpose of this research guide is to get you started on finding some sources for your final exam on global warming. We will explore a few sources that the library offers as well as some reliable, fun, and quality websites where you can view and email yourself some sources. To search for articles in GCC library’s databases, go to the homepage of the library and select the article databases tab at the very top. From there, select from the alphabetical list of databases.

Keywords and Search Terms

Highlight or circle a topic or two that look interesting to you. These will be the terms you use for your search.  Remember, as you go through the process of researching, you may want to change terms that might be more commonly used in the research that you find.

Greenhouse Effect	Methane gas	Ocean or sea level rise
Carbon Dioxide	Melting of glaciers	Ocean temperature rise
Carbon Trade or Exchange	Melting of permafrost	Hurricanes or storms increasing intensity
Fossil fuels or carbon-based fuels	Melting of ice sheets	Polar regions as first places

Exploring Your Topic

Access Science—Online Science Encyclopedia

It’s important to get a good idea or “working knowledge” of your topic before you start finding sources. You will be able to articulate and respond in a coherent manner on your final exam. Doing so will also help you stay focused on finding relevant sources.

 

 Science Resource Center (SRC)

The SRC is a great resource for find fulltext articles on all science-related topics, including browsing the topics on the front page. There are several other ways to do a search in SRC. The most efficient way to use this database for your assignment is to do an Advanced Search. Follow the diagram and enter your terms in the search box.

ProQuest -- Following are hints for searching in the ProQuest database

If you want to see what the “official terms” or subject headings for your topic might be, select the Topics tab, and enter your terms. For example, enter ice sheets and look at the subject headings. What is the official term for ice sheets in ProQuest? _____________________________ .  What does this mean? It means that if you want to find information on ice sheets, you should use ________________________ because this term is what ProQuest has used to talk ice sheets.

 

Now, from the list of descriptors, select the most relevant link. Then click the link that says

“Show Only Fulltext.” Finally, select the “Scholarly Journals” tab. See diagram below:

 

• Use an * to search for roots of terms to the right of the search box.  For example, typing in camp* will bring back camp, camps, campaign, but also campfire. Alternatively, you may enter camp and camps on two different lines and selecting the or operator between them.

• Use a ? for variations such as plurals of a word.  For example, wom?n, to find woman, women, or even womyn.

 

MORE RELIABLE WEB SEARCHING

Visit these links for reliable and academic websites:
http://science.gov/

http://infomine.ucr.edu/