Scope
The Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management (ESPM) database contains citations and abstracts of over 6,000 scientific journals and thousands of other sources including conference proceedings, reports, monographs, books and government publications, from 1967 to the present; and is updated monthly.
Subjects ESPM covers:
ESPM includes the literature of: agricultural biotechnology; air quality; bacteriology; ecology; ecotourism; energy resources; environmental biotechnology; environmental impact statements (U.S.); hazardous waste; human population dynamics; industrial hygiene; microbiology related to industrial & environmental issues; pollution: land, air, water, noise, solid waste,and radioactive; risk assessment; safety science; toxicology & toxic emissions; waste management; and water resource issues.ESPM is part of the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) databases.
Print Indexes ESPM replaces:
ESPM includes the contents of fourteen printed indexes and abstracts: Agricultural & Environmental Biotechnology Abstracts, ASFA 3: Aquatic Pollution & Environmental Quality, Bacteriology: Microbiology Abstracts Section B, Ecology Abstracts, EIS: Digests of Environmental Impact Statements, Environmental Engineering Abstracts,Health & Safety ScienceAbstracts, Human Population and Natural Resource Management, Industrial and Applied Microbiology: Microbiology Abstracts Section A,Pollution Abstracts, Risk Abstracts,Toxicology Abstracts, and Water Resources Abstracts. Most recently (August 2004),Human Population & Natural Resource Management has been added to the ESPM database.
For the most up-to-date searching tips, click the "Help and Support" link on the search page in the database.
How do I start ?
Keyword Search:
The easiest way to get started is by using a keyword search. You can just type in terms relevant to your search topic in the boxes. For example, for articles on parenting behavior in fish, you might type in fish, parent, and behavior in the three boxes.
How do I type the terms in?
When you are doing a keyword search you can use the following tools:
Boolean Operators:
Use these between your search terms:
AND - This limits your results to articles thatcontain BOTH of your search terms.
ex. fish AND behavior (This is the default)OR - This expands yourresults toinclude articles that contain EITHER of your search terms.
ex. babiesOR infants (use this for similar terms)NOT - Thislimits yourresults toarticles that contain yourfirst term BUT NOT your second.
ex. fish NOT shark*Truncation:
Tip: You can use an asterisk (*) at any point in a word to get all endings of that word. For ex: parent* will find parent, parents, parenting, etc.
The symbol for truncationinEnvironmental Sciences and PollutionManagementis the asterisk ( * ). Using this symbol at the end ofa search term will look for all varying endings of that word.
What now?
Search:
Click search and the computer will bring back a list of citations.
Results:
You will receive a list of citations. The "All Publication Types" tab is selected. You can also choose the Journals, Peer-reviewed Journals, Conferences, Websites, etc. tabs to limit your results to these publication types. Looking through these citations, you can use information such as the title and abstract to decide which articles are best for you to use in your research.
What do I do if I get too many results?
Limiters:
Hit your back button. Below the three entry boxes you can limit the publication year. You could also add more keywords using AND to limit your results.
What do I do if I get too few results?
Possibilities:
- Hit your back button.
- Take out one keyword
- Use OR instead of AND
- Use different keywords
- Try a different database!
** ALWAYS SAVE, PRINT, or EMAIL your citations!! **
Then you will have all the information you need to find the articles you want and to create your bibliography.
Selecting Citations:
- Mark the citations you are interested in by checking the box next to each item.
- Click the "# marked records" link at the top of the page.
- Click the "Save, Print, E-mail" link at the top of the marked records page.
E-mail:
Fill in the blanks TO and FROM,and click on EMAIL
Save:
Click on SAVE (the default file format is for the PC). Then click save and choose where to save the file.
Print:
Click on PRINT PREVIEW. Then use the browser's File menu and click Print.
QuikBib is used to create a bibliography in a specific bibliographic style (APA, AMA, Chicago, MLA, Turabian, or Uniform). Itwill export your citations in a citation format chosen by you. Simply mark the records you want, click "Save, Print, E-mail" and in the middle of the screen select your output (such as MS word) and select the style you want. Your citations will open in a new window.
Full Text in the database:
ESPM is a citation/abstract database only. There are no full-text articles in this database. You may still be able to find the article electronically through another CSULB database using SFX
SFX
Once you select an article, click on it to get to the full record, where you can click on SFX. A pop-up box will tell you whether and where it is available full-text online. If it is not, it may have a link to COAST that will send you to the COAST record which will have the call number for the journal in the building.
COAST
You may have to find the article using COASTsearching by journalname. Click on Journals in the left column, and type in the title of the journal that the article you want is in. Coast will then list the library's holdings (if any) of that journal.
ILLIAD
Your final resort is to request the article through Interlibrary Loan, using ILLIAD. This is a free service that will get you the article from another library. It will either be emailed to you or you will be able to pick it up at CSULB's library. This process takes 5-7 working days.
For additional help with searching:
visit the reference desk on the first floor of the library,
try 24/7 chat with a librarian, or
set up an appointment with Cathy Outten, the Science and Mathematics librarian.
