Research Guides: GEOL 543/GEOE 446 Capstone Projects: Finding Articles and Reports

Geological Survey Publications

Check country and provincial/state geological survey websites for reports, articles, data and maps. For example:

GeologyOntario Queen's Library has print copies of these digitized maps and reports - check Omni.
Geological Survey of Canada
USGS - see Publications, Maps

Judging Reliability

Journals may or may not be peer-reviewed. To be certain, look up the journal title in Ulrichsweb.

What is a technical report?

Technical reports describe the progress or results of scientific or technical research.
Usually issued in numbered series by government agencies (watch for changing agency names), university departments or corporations.
Found in print, online, or in microform - search Omni. Ask library staff for assistance if you need microfiche or microfilm.
Found online in various repositories. These reports may NOT be indexed by Google – you need to search each repository’s site. E.g. NRC’s Publications Archive
May be “unpublished”. For example,

Williams, D.A. and Trotter, RJ., 1984. Preliminary hydrogeological investigation of Prince Edward County: Phase I. Geology. Prince Edward Conservation Authority, unpublished.

The PECA was subsumed by Quinte Conservation. QC was contacted directly to see if they had a copy (they did).

Databases and Repositories

GeoRef

Publication coverage: Geology of North America: 1693 - present; Geology worldwide: 1933 - present. Access to over 1.8 million references to articles, books, maps, conference papers, reports and theses. (more info)

GEOBASE

Publication coverage: 1980 - present. A comprehensive, international and interdisciplinary database covering physical and human geography, geology, ecology, and Third World studies. Over 600,000 abstracts of more than 2,000 journals, monographs, books, conference proceedings, reports, and theses. (more info)

Compendex

Ei Compendex is the world's most comprehensive engineering literature database.

As of 2016, it contained more than 20 million references dating back to 1884. Compendex currently indexes more than 4,000 journals and trade magazines, dozens of book series, thousands of conference proceedings, dissertations and theses. More than one million new records are added each year. Each record is indexed using terms from the Engineering Index Thesaurus.

GEOSCAN Database

Comprises more than 45 000 records of publications released by Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) or Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) authors. (more info)

Lyell Collection

Collection of earth science literature consisting of the Geological Society of London's journals, special publications and book series issued from 1845 to the present. Presented by the John Lindsley Memorial Endowment. (more info)

SEG Digital Library

Search the Society of Exploration Geophysicists' journals, meeting abstracts, technical articles and encyclopedia. Paid for by the John Lindsley Memorial Endowment. (more info)

GeoScienceWorld

Comprehensive online resource for research in the geosciences, built on a core compilation of peer-reviewed journals indexed, linked, and inter-operable with GeoRef. (more info)

AGU Digital Library

A comprehensive collection of more than 100 years of earth and space science research. The library contains articles from journals dating back to 1896. Backfiles presented by the John Lindsley Memorial Endowment. (more info)

SciFinder

SciFinder contains experimental and predicted property information and literature references for more than 72 million chemical substances.