UC Library Search
Perform your search, then select "Peer Reviewed Journals" under "Show Only" on the left side of the results screen.
Indexes to Scholarly Journals - Science and Engineering & Communication
UCSB Library subscribes to hundreds of research databases, which are excellent tools to use for finding scholarly articles. Below is a selection of recommended databases for research in Environmental Studies and Communication, many of which contain the full text of articles. If you do not see a link to the full text, use the 
link to find a different access point or to order a copy through Interlibrary Loan.
The complete list of databases, including descriptions, is here: A-Z List of Databases.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA scholarly, multi-disciplinary database offering full-text access to peer-reviewed journals and indexing/abstracts for various other publications.
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National Agricultural Library Search This link opens in a new windowIndexes a comprehensive range of publications and resources across agriculture and allied disciplines, such as plant/animal sciences, forestry, soil/water resources, agricultural economics, and food/nutrition.
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Agricultural & Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts and citations from over 4,000 journals and other sources, including conference proceedings, books, and government publications.
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Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) This link opens in a new windowCovers all aspects of aquatic science, including aquaculture, biology, conservation, environmental quality, fisheries, limnology, oceanography, and policy/legislation.
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Biological Science Collection This link opens in a new windowProvides comprehensive coverage of biological science fields, including animal behavior, aquatic life, biochemistry, ecology, plant science, toxicology, virology, microbiology, genetics, and neuroscience.
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BioOne Complete This link opens in a new windowProvides a unique aggregation of high-impact bioscience research journals, offering timely content on pressing topics like global warming, stem cell research, and ecological/biodiversity conservation.
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Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowCovers all business disciplines (marketing, management, accounting, finance, economics, etc.). Includes financial data, books, conference proceedings, case studies, and various reports (investment research, industry, market research, country, company profiles, and SWOT analyses).
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Communication Source (including Communication Abstracts) This link opens in a new windowA full-text research database for communication studies. It offers hundreds of top journals and sources covering related disciplines like media studies, linguistics, speech pathology, and rhetoric.
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Compendex (via Engineering Village) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive bibliographic database of scientific and technical engineering research, covering all engineering disciplines. It includes citations and abstracts from engineering journals and conference proceedings.
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Environmental Issues OnlineThis interdisciplinary multimedia collection supports the study of key environmental challenges (e.g., climate change, pollution, biodiversity) from the 20th and 21st centuries, bringing together primary source documents, archives, films, text, and photographs.
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GeoRef This link opens in a new windowProvides citations from a variety of sources in the fields of geology and geophysics.
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Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary database providing access to a variety of scholarly literature. Use this link if you are off-campus.
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PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowProvides access to international literature in psychology, the behavioral sciences, and related disciplines from professional journals, books, reports, and dissertations.
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U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical InformationProvided by the U.S. Department of Energy; good for renewable energy sources. Includes many full-text technical reports.
1948 to present.
Note: This database is not limited to UCSB users. This database does not have links to Get it at UC. You will need to look up journals in UC Library Search to determine availability.
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Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowA primary resource for accessing the latest sponsored research in sociology and related social/behavioral sciences. It draws information from an international selection of thousands of journals and other sources.
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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Covers thousands of research journals, and extensive collections of conference proceedings and books across hundreds of disciplines.
Locate Physical Journals
Dissertations & Theses
Dissertations are the product of the academic research done to obtain a Ph.D. degree. A thesis is the equivalent product to obtain a Master's degree. Check with your instructor to see if these are acceptable sources for your research. For a full list of databases with dissertations and theses, including their descriptions, visit the A-Z List of Databases.
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Open Access Theses & Dissertations (OATD) This link opens in a new window
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Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations This link opens in a new window
Finding Articles & Journals
To find a specific journal, use Browzine or UC Library Journal Search.
To locate an article for which you have a citation, use Google Scholar or the Library's Fetch Item (Citation Linker).
To find scholarly articles on your topic, use the library's Article Databases.
Looking for Review Articles?
These are a great way to get an overview of your topic. Try searching through Annual Reviews, then try your search in any database and use the word "review" as part of your search. UC Library Search and Academic Search Complete have a number of review articles in them. Note that some reviews are actually book reviews.
Scholarly and Academic Journal Articles
Scholarly journals contain articles written by and addressed to experts in a discipline, presenting original research and often including field-specific opinions or advertisements.
Peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals are a subset of scholarly journals that send submitted articles to experts for critical review before publication. This process ensures the articles reflect solid scholarship, with authors often required to incorporate reviewers' comments. While not all scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, most peer-reviewed journals are considered scholarly.
Is it Peer Reviewed?
While specialized databases often index scholarly journals, they usually don't indicate if a journal is peer-reviewed. To determine peer review status, check the journal's website for author submission guidelines or consult a reference librarian.
Looking for Review Articles?
To get an overview of your topic, search Annual Reviews or use the word "review" in any database, including UC Library Search and Academic Search Complete. Be aware that some results will be book reviews (typically a page or two), not review articles (usually ten or more pages).