Environmental Science and Conservation

Sometimes you need to create a citation on the fly, while other times, your writing will be more complicated and involve citing several items and keeping track of sources.  For this type of work, use a citation manager.

To decide which citation manager to use:  Citation Manager Comparison Chart

The Libraries offer workshops on the different citation managers:  Libraries Events Calendar

Zotero - a tool to organize your research citations, papers, and ideas:  https://www.zotero.org/

CREATE AN ACCOUNT:  https://www.zotero.org/user/register

Create an account, download the tool, and add the Zotero connector to access full functionality.  The web version will sync with the downloaded desktop version.  The web version alone does work but will require some workarounds (add a citation using the DOI) and does not offer much storage for paper pdfs. 

Using Zotero with Google Docs Video (1:18) 

• Scholarly vs Popular (NC State)
• Developing a Search Strategy (Librarian S.Lucchesi)
• Test your plagiarism skills (Everett Community College)

To create a compelling story, you might want to investigate these three types of sources:

1. Popular Magazines to get a view into what the public is reading; use the database Academic Search Premier
2. Newspaper articles - Start with the NY Times - see this guide https://guides.library.umass.edu/nytimes then other options https://guides.library.umass.edu/sb.php?subject_id=128867
3. Peer-reviewed scholarly research articles
4. Government information for statistics and legislation; CRS reports are particularly helpful

When starting a research project, it is sometimes helpful to search popular magazines to scaffold information and learn the level of information communicated to a public audience.

The database Academic Search Premier is the ONLY database that will let you search specifically for magazine and trade publications.

Target your database search by combining these tools with your strategic keywords.

Using quotes "_____"  keeps words together as a phrase.  Example: "Climate Change"

Using parentheses (_____)  collects like terms.  Example: (Sea or Ocean or Coast)

Using an asterisk * at end of of a word returns all the various word endings.  Example: Flood*  for Flood, Flooded, Flooding

Research databases help you find journal articles and many other types of publications. The best database to use is determined by your research topic. Consult Madeleine or Paulina for help!

Off-campus, log in with your UMass Amherst NetID

The databases listed are in ALPHABETICAL order, not in order of importance to your topic.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the non-partisan public policy research arm of the United States Congress.

CRS experts prepare reports to assist members of Congress throughout the legislative process providing background information and data on public policy issues.