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Political Science *

Below are links to databases and scholarly web sites that support the study of political science and its related sub-disciplines.

Environmental Policy Research Resources

Below are links to databases and electronic resources that support the study of environmental policy and related areas of research. For additional resources, GO HERE.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Databases that offer multidisciplinary coverage of environmental policy literature from scholarly and non-scholarly sources.

  • CQ Researcher --   in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Reports are published weekly 44 times a year.
  • Google Scholar -- the scholarly part of the Google empire. To set up Google Scholar with access to full-text journals and databases, go here.
  • JSTOR -- a multidisciplinary archive of scholarly journal articles covering most major disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Useful for identifying historical research on a topic.
  • Policy Commons -- platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The database provides advanced searching across millions of pages of books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications, including archived reports from more than 200 defunct think tanks.
  • ProQuest -- comprehensive, multidisciplinary database of newspaper, magazine, and scholarly journal articles updated daily. Content is more focused and manageable than Google Scholar.

SPECIALIZED RESEARCH RESOURCES

Key Databases

  • Environment Index -- provides access to articles from domestic and international journals, books and conference papers covering applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, marine and freshwater science, geography, pollution and waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more.
  • GreenFile -- indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. Focuses on offering a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment, drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, and health and technology.
  • Pollution Abstracts -- Offers coverage on scientific research and government policies for air pollution, marine pollution, freshwater Pollution, sewage and wastewater treatment, waste management and land pollution. It also covers effects of pollution on people and animals, and environmental action in response to global pollution issues.
  • Water Resources Abstracts [via Environmental Science Index] -- provides summaries from 1967 to the present of the world's technical, scientific, and public policy literature on water-related topics covering the characteristics, conservation, control, pollution, treatment, use, and management of water resources as well as the legal aspects of water supply, usage, control, or management.

Related Research Resources

  • Earth, Atmospheric and Aquatic Science Collection -- provides full-text titles from around the world, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, and government publications focused on studying the critical issues affecting Earth’s air, land, and water environments.
  • Environmental Data Viewer -- a comprehensive environmental database containing thousands of environmental records collected from various local, state, and federal organizations. The database contains information pertaining to Superfund sites, suspected contamination, compliance and violation concerns, permitted sources of toxic vapors, and other characteristics that may be harmful.
  • Environmental Health State Bill Tracking Database – system from the National Conference of State Legislatures that tracks legislation to facilitate access to up-to-date information about environmental health bills that have been introduced in the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Environmental health legislation addresses environmental factors that may adversely impact human health or the ecological balances essential to long-term human health and environmental quality, whether in the natural or man-made environment.
  • Environmental Issues Online -- uses text, archival primary sources and video to address major past and ongoing environmental issues—water challenges, air pollution, biodiversity, climate change, energy issues, consumption and waste issues, and land issues—in comparative, historical, global and interdisciplinary ways that lie at the intersections of the social sciences, the biological and earth sciences, the humanities, legal studies and policy.
  • Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources [GREENR] -- focuses on the physical, social, and economic aspects of environmental issues. Topic, organization, and country portals form research centers around issues covering energy systems, health care, agriculture, climate change, population, and economic development. Portals include authoritative analysis, academic journals, news, case studies, legislation, conference proceedings, primary source documents, statistics, and multimedia.
  • HeinOnline Law Journal Library -- full text access to digitized content of more than 2,600 law and law-related periodicals that cover criminal justice, political science, technology, human rights, and more. Coverage for all journals is from first issue and volume through the current issue or volume for most titles.
  • Sociological Abstracts -- primary resource for accessing the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database draws information from an international selection of over 2,600 journals and other serials publications, plus conference papers, books, and doctoral dissertations.
  • Toxicant and Disease Database -- summarizes studies linking select chemical and other environmental risk factors and more than 200 human diseases or conditions. The database is designed to reflect the current state of knowledge about toxicants and human disease, organized by disease categories. The database focuses primarily on human epidemiological studies, and a comprehensive review of animal data was beyond the scope of this project. However, in some instances animal data were included and influenced the listing. The database is searchable by disease, disease category, toxicant, CAS number, or keyword.

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Databases that offer the opportunity to understand and contemplate the implications of policy decisions through the eyes of those who may be most impacted by those decisions.

  • Chicano Database -- bibliographic index focuses on the Mexican-American and Chicano experience, and the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants since 1992. Covers Chicano/a art, education, folklore, health. history, labor, language and literature, music, politics, public policy, religion, sociology, and women's studies.
  • Ethnic NewsWatch -- includes current and archival coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic and minority presses. Very important database for gaining a perspective and an understanding of civic engagement from underrepresented groups and minorities.
  • GenderWatch -- a full-text database that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. Publications include academic and scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings, and government, NGO and special reports.
  • LGBT Life -- the premier resource to the world\'s literature regarding Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Transsexual issues with coverage that includes traditional academic, lifestyle, and regional publications, as well as non-periodical content such as non-fiction books, bibliographies and dissertations.

DATA AND STATISTICS

  • Climate Data Online -- provides free access to National Centers for Environmental Information's archive of global historical weather and climate data in addition to station history information. These data include quality controlled daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly measurements of temperature, precipitation, wind, and degree days as well as radar data and 30-year Climate Normals.
  • Data Observation Network for Earth -- supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, DataONE is a community driven project providing access to data across multiple member repositories, supporting enhanced search and discovery of Earth and environmental data.
  • EarthTrends Maps and Data -- an online collection of information regarding the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape the world. The site offers statistical, graphic, and analytical data in easily accessible formats by gathering data from the world’s leading statistical agencies, along with maps and analyzes, into a single database.
  • Envirofacts -- allows you to search topical or multiple environmental databases for facility information, including toxic chemical releases, water discharge permit compliance, hazardous waste handling processes, Superfund status, and air emission estimates. Search the database using any combination of the following criteria: facility name, geography, facility industrial classification, or pollutant. A search returns a list of facilities that match the criteria entered.
  • Environmental Dataset Gateway -- provides access to EPA data sources, organized into topics such as air and water that are in easily downloadable formats. Data Finder points to data in downloadable formats to speed up environmental research. For each data source, you can see a basic overview, including the geographic scale and other contextual information, then access the data source itself.
  • Environmental Records Database -- search from thousands of environmental records collected from various local, state and federal organizations and compiled into an easy-to-use search engine. The database contains information pertaining to Superfund sites, suspected contamination, compliance and violation concerns, permitted sources of toxic vapors and other characteristics that may be harmful. Includes a mapping tool to visualize the location of these areas.
  • Global Change Master Directory -- contains more than 29,000 Earth science data set and service descriptions, which cover subject areas within the Earth and environmental sciences. The project mission is to assist researchers, policy makers, and the public in the discovery of and access to data, related services, and ancillary information (which includes descriptions of instruments and platforms) relevant to global change and Earth science research.
  • National Centers for Environmental Information Archive –  the official archive for data collected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, observing systems, and research initiatives. The center manages more than thirty petabytes of data and information that spans the entire spectrum of Earth’s environmental systems and cycles. The archive is one of the most comprehensive in the world, and includes data, metadata, and products from a broad range of time periods, observing systems, scientific disciplines, and geographic locations.
  • Toxic Sites -- a data visualization application that visually explains the characteristics of a Superfund site and the process of cleanup. The interactive site includes videos and news alerts about specific sites as well as updates on site clean up and remediation. Each Superfund entry includes a description of the site, a time line of site discovery, site inspection, preliminary assessment, final listing on National Priorities List, and removal, if applicable. Entries also include a graph of contaminants and their health effects, census data, potentially responsible parties, similar sites in the United States, and any news stories concerning the site.
  • Water Data for the Nation -- provides access to water resources data collected at approximately 1.9 million sites in all fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Online access to this data is organized around the categories related the occurrence, quantity, quality, distribution, and movement of surface and underground waters.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Organizations

Below is a select list of national and state and local environmental advocacy organizations. To locate descriptions of additional organizations, special interest groups, and research centers, search the Gale Directory Library database.
 
NATIONAL ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS
  • American Water Works Association -- the largest nonprofit, scientific and educational association dedicated to managing and treating water, the world’s most important resource.
  • Carbon Disclosure Project -- runs the global disclosure system that enables companies, cities, states, and regions to measure and manage their environmental impacts.
  • Ceres -- a sustainability nonprofit organization working with investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy to address the world’s biggest sustainability challenges, including climate change, water scarcity, and pollution control.
  • Climate Reality Project -- committed to building a more just and equitable world around solving the climate crisis by building a coalition that includes indigenous peoples, low-income families, people of color, and other historically marginalized groups who represent frontline communities who experience harmful climate impacts.
  • Earth First! -- a radical environmental advocacy and protest organization devoted to protecting ecological preserves across the United States and aggressively promoting concepts of conservation biology.
  • Earthjustice -- a nonprofit public interest environmental law organization composed of legal and research analysts, policy experts, and staff scientists located in fifteen offices in the United States devoted to protecting people’s health, to preserving wildlife, to advancing clean energy, and to combating climate change.
  • Earthwatch Institute -- devoted to engaging people worldwide in scientific field research and education in order to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.
  • Environmental Defense Fund -- a nonprofit environmental advocacy group founded in 1967 known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and human health, and advocates using evidence-based science, economics, and law to find solutions to various environmental problems.
  • Greenpeace -- a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
  • Invasive Species Information -- a collaboration a grant-funded project developed among several agencies to provide information, including photos, videos and maps, on invasive species in North America.
  • Local Governments for Sustainability -- a global network of more than 1,750 local and regional governments committed to influencing sustainability policy and drive local action for low emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient, and circular sustainable urban development.
  • National Snow and Ice Data Center -- supports research concerning the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth’s cryosphere. NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere. 
  • National Wildlife Federation -- a non-profit that works in communities across the country to protect and restore wildlife habitat, confront global warming, and connect people with nature.
  • Natural Resources Defense Council -- founded in 1970, this organization works to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities and initiates legal action in defense of the environment.
  • Sierra Club -- grassroots environmental organization that advocates for mitigating climate change, reducing unprecedented levels of pollution, and confronting powerful special interests undermining basic protections.
  • Wilderness Society -- collaborates closely with local communities to safeguard wild places for future generations by advocating for legal protections and defending national policies that give protections for national forests, parks, refuges, and Bureau of Land Management lands.

STATE AND LOCAL ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS

  • Asian Pacific Environmental Network – a non-profit organization with a mission to improve environmental awareness. The organization believes that everyone in the neighborhood and the state of California deserves to live in a clean and healthy environment. It provides initiatives and programs to educate communities in California by teaching about the importance of maintaining a clean environment and encouraging everyone to strive for a cleaner and greener environment.  The organization’s goal is to organize a movement that will result in fundamental economic and social systems changes leading to a greater awareness of the need to help our earth and ecosystem.
  • California Environmental Justice Alliance -- a statewide, community-led alliance that works to achieve environmental justice by advancing policy solutions by uniting local organizing of our members in low-income communities and communities of color most impacted by environmental hazards to create comprehensive opportunities for change at a statewide level to alleviate poverty and pollution. The Alliance supports a statewide movement for environmental health and social justice, with a membership that includes 35,000 Asian Pacific American, Latino, and African American residents in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles, Inland Valley and San Diego/Tijuana area.
  • California Environmental Justice Coalition – works to bring about systemic change in industry and government policies and practices to protect health and promote justice and resilient communities by uncompromisingly following the principles of environmental justice; promoting unity and solidarity; using community-based knowledge; and strengthening community leadership. Led by people of color and low-income communities, CEJC is a broad, inclusive, grassroots statewide coalition of small and large groups uniting urban, rural and indigenous communities in resistance against environmental racism and injustice, and committed to environmental, social, and economic justice.
  • California Environmental Voters Education Fund –  established as a 501(c)3 organization in 1996, the EnviroVoters Education Fund provides the public, policymakers, and environmental advocates with the resources needed to make California’s air, water, and natural resources cleaner and greener through the democratic process. It does this through programs focused on voter engagement and mobilization, educating legislators on pressing environmental issues, conducting public opinion research, and organizing with allies and local communities.
  • California Nurses for Environmental Health and Justice -- an organization of individual nurses and nursing organizations that partner with NGO’s, healthcare organizations, and communities to champion environmental health and justice. Acting on the professional knowledge of the nursing profession, the organization focuses on a range of concerns that include climate change, air and water pollution, health issues associated with food and agriculture, toxic chemicals in people’s everyday lives, ending our reliance on fossil fuels, radio frequency radiation, and sustainable health care.
  • Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice – founded in 1978, this organization promotes environmental justice beginning with the closure of the Stringfellow Acid Pit toxic waste site in Urupa Valley, California, and continuing to work to raise awareness and motivate communities to take action in their neighborhoods. The organization fosters local leadership, community mobilization through effective efforts, and the development of a basis of community power. They do this to raise awareness and educate people about the value of the environment throughout California.
  • Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment – a national environmental justice organization providing legal, organizing, and technical assistance to grassroots groups in low-income communities and communities of color in California's San Joaquin Valley and the counties of Kern, Kings, and Fresno. CRPE supports low income communities and communities of color most impacted by pollution through a combination of community organizing, legal representation, policy advocacy, and coalition building to create systemic change.
  • Climate Resolve -- launched in 2010, this Los Angeles-based organization prioritizes working with communities that are most affected by climate change impacts. The residents of these communities are predominantly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The work includes advocating in partnership with grassroots groups, assisting communities to obtain funding for climate solutions, and ensuring equitable implementation of climate legislation.
  • Coalition for Clean Air -- founded in 1971, this is California’s only statewide organization working exclusively on air quality issues. From creating the idea for California’s original Smog Check program in 1981 to ensuring the first national ban on the toxic dry cleaning chemical “perc” to helping pass legislation to put one million electric vehicles on California’s roads by 2025, CCA has paved the way for socially and environmentally responsible air policy nationally and worldwide.
  • Coastal Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy [CAUSE] -- a base-building organization committed to social, economic, and environmental justice for working-class and immigrant communities in California’s Central Coast. The group seeks to build grassroots empowerment through community organizing, leadership development, coalition building, civic engagement, policy research, and advocacy. Its environmental justice accomplishments include protecting local communities from being burdened by environmental hazards like liquefied natural gas terminals, power plants, and metal scrapyards and promoting health equity and access to green space by creating a new park and supporting environmental restoration efforts in our communities.
  • Communities for a Better Environment – an environmental justice organizations with a mission to build people’s power in California’s communities of color and low income communities to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and building green, healthy, and sustainable communities and environments. The organization provides residents in heavily polluted urban communities in California with organizing skills, leadership training and legal, scientific and technical assistance so that they can successfully confront threats to their health and well-being.
  • Community Environmental Council -- an advocacy coalition focused on California Central Coast by focusing on reversing the trajectory of climate change by speeding the transition to zero emissions and zero waste in the energy, transportation, food, and agriculture sectors; repairing the disrupted carbon cycle by tapping the power of nature to draw down excess carbon from the atmosphere; and, by protecting communities from extreme weather and other climate impacts by spurring bold actions with a focus on protecting vulnerable populations from the impacts of climate change already underway.
  • Environment California -- a nonprofit organization that advocates for environmental laws in California but is linked with the environmental advocacy organization Environment America and the Fund for the Public Interest. Its mission is to increase awareness and encourage everyone to make California a greener and healthier state by supporting initiatives that prioritize the protection of the environment. Organization leads the campaign “California Against Single-Use Plastics” focusing on stopping the production of single-use plastics and to increase recycling rates for plastic products.
  • Environmental Defense Center – works to protect and improve the ecosystem along California’s south-central coast. They do this by educating the public, advocating for change, and taking legal action. Founded in 1977, the grassroots organization aims to enhance environmental protection through initiatives that include clean water programs, open space, and wildlife programs. The organization also includes projects that deal with climate change and energy issues.
  • Environmental Justice Coalition for Water – a coalition of grassroots groups and intermediary organizations building a collective, community-based movement for democratic water allocation, management, and policy in California. The group seeks to empower the most under-served communities, including those of low-income and communities of color throughout California, to advocate for clean, safe, and affordable water and to build a broad movement for water justice by tackling structural inequity in how California’s water resources are managed. EJCW serves as the umbrella organization for California’s water justice movement.
  • Environmental Protection Information Center – a community-based, non-profit environmental protection group that works to protect and restore Northwest California’s forests using science-based approaches. The Center began when a group of residents banded together in 1977 to effectively end aerial pesticide applications by industrial logging firms in Humboldt County and now focuses on protection of endangered species, restructuring of the industrial forestry sector, restoring the natural cycle of wildlife to its previous state, and advocates for the protection and responsible use of public lands.
  • Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice – seeks to promote social justice and environmental awareness through environmental education. Founded in 1997, the group works to raise awareness and provide insights to low-income and working-class populations in indigenous areas. Its goal is to engage and educate communities to enhance health and reduce pollution in their neighborhoods. The organization works to organize community empowerment to influence the businesses and government policies and practices. It safeguards health and advances environmental, social, economic, and climate justice in California and beyond.
  • Heal the Bay -- an environmental nonprofit established in 1985 dedicated to making the coastal waters and watersheds in Greater Los Angeles safe, healthy, and clean. The goals of Heal the Bay is to promote awareness of the need to reduce waste by hosting events that teach people how to recycle and compost, organize cleanup campaigns and other projects to keep beaches clean, and promote renewable energy and sustainable transportation.
  • Last Chance Alliance – an alliance of more than organizations united to urge Governor Gavin Newsom to stop new fossil fuel permits, drop existing oil drilling, and roll out health and safety buffers. The Alliance advocates for phasing out fossil fuels to eliminate exposure to toxic emissions and chemicals from oil and gas drilling, to ensure a just and equitable transition off fossil fuel production by urging state and local governments to begin a managed transition that prioritizes the economic and physical health of affected workers and communities tied to oil and gas revenue, and fight for climate justice by helping to break down systems that have led to more than 2.7 million Californians living within 3,200 feet of an existing operational oil and gas well, the majority of which are communities of color.
  • Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator -- a non-profit organization creating an inclusive green economy for the people of Los Angeles by: unlocking innovation by working with startups to accelerate the commercialization of clean technologies; transforming markets through partnerships with policymakers, innovators, and market leaders in transportation, energy and sustainable cities; and enhancing communities through workforce development, pilots, and other programs. It was founded as an economic development initiative by the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
  • Los Angeles Conservation Corps -- considered one of the country’s major urban conservation corps, the organization provides opportunities for young adults in Los Angeles to get involved in conservation. The group organizes green community initiatives and works to develop environmental awareness through its clean and green programs that include habitat restoration, recycling, tree planting, and food waste rescue. The organization’s mission also included cleaning alleyways and establishing parks.
  • Mujeres de la Tierra -- an environmental equity nonprofit founded with the guiding principles of respect, advocacy, self-determination, bravery, and creativity. The Los Angeles organization works to build grassroots community leadership and capacity among historically unrecognized communities, especially among those that are low-income, immigrant, and/or communities of color to support projects that protect the environment.
  • Orange County Environmental Justice Educational Fund – a 501(c)3 multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environmental justice organization formed in 2016 that develops grassroots leadership and advances an environmental justice agenda within the ancestral homelands of the Acjachemen and Tongva Nations, now known as Orange County, California. The group’s mission is to fight for environmental justice by mobilizing and empowering marginalized community members.
  • PODER – an advocacy organization based in San Francisco with a mission to organize with Latinx immigrant families, along with black, indigenous and other low-income communities of color, to put into practice people-powered solutions that are locally based, community led, and environmentally just. The group cultivates community rooted solutions intended to create a society where immigrants have the rights to social, racial, economic, and environmental justice rooted in Latinx ancestral land-based cultures and wisdom.
  • South Central LA Project to Understand the Sources and Health Impacts of Local Air Pollution (SCLA-PUSH) – a collaborative initiative led by Physicians for Social Responsibility-LA aimed to mobilize stakeholders to assess the scale and gravity of local air pollution in the South and Southeast Los Angeles community plan areas in order to identify viable community-driven solutions. Since its inception, group leaders have trained over seventy residents as air quality experts and community scientists, ground-truthed six census tracts in the South and Southeast community plan areas, and installed five new monitors to increase data availability around air pollution. The SCLA-PUSH project was implemented through the Community Air Protection Program, a state program under the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that was created as a result of Assembly Bill 617 in 2017.
  • Sustainable Conservation -- an environmental group that helps California prosper by connecting people to solve the most challenging problems that land, air, and water face. The organization has achieved several significant milestones in California. The organization’s projects and programs emphasize developing sustainable groundwater treatment and speeding up the conservation of natural and commercial areas and waterways. One of their campaigns was the Sustainable Conservation PlantRight campaign that succeeded to protect water quality from nitrate pollution of groundwater. It also implemented methane digesters that convert cow waste into renewable electricity and fuel. The group is currently promotes creative services to address the water demands of California’s environment, population, and industry.
  • TreePeople -- a nonprofit environmental organization with the mission“to inspire and empower people to take personal responsibility for the health of their community and environment.” The organization does this by teaching people about the importance of trees and nature. The organization has helped to plant more than two million trees, organize events and projects that include tree planting, water conservation, and recycling education, and the organization also operates a green infrastructure program, which helps cities to manage storm water using trees and other plants.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.