Skip to Main Content

Library Resources for EM205

Research Strategy

For this assignment, you are to write an assessment of environmental policymaking at the federal, state, and local levels with respect to your selected environmental issue. 

The web links to the left have a wealth of information related to environmental issues.  Once you have chosen an issue, you are to find:

  • Three scholarly articles
  • Three newspaper articles
  • Three reputable websites
  • Three questionable websites

Begin searching at the Library welcome page, and select the Peer Reviewed box. 

In the search box, begin a topic search. For example:

  • deforestation "united states"
  • "water pollution" "united states"
  • "air pollution" "united states"​

Be sure to use the quotation marks as shown; they tell the database to search words together as a phrase.

Once articles have been retrieved, search results can be refined by selecting the various limiters on the left side of the page. For example, try limiting the results by publication date, geography, subject (see below), and more. 

Image of the section on the left hand side of the library results page that is labeled Limit by Subject with the number of resources on that topic listed after each topic. Subjects listed are: climate change (3,646) deforestation (1,826) biodiversity (1,736) land use (1,692) ecology (1,417) research article (1,324)

Search tip: When browsing results, look at subject tags within the article citations; they can often provide additional search terms and phrases. 

Westlaw is another resource of information. From the Library homepage, select the All Databases link.

Scroll down to Westlaw Campus Research and click on that. All databases are listed alphabetically.

Select Regulations

Image is of the Browse box located just below Westlaw Campus Research's search box on Westlaw's homepage. There are five tabs for this box. From left to right, they are All content, Federal Materials, State Materials, Practice Areas, Tools. Below that there are three columns of words to choose from. The column on the left is Cases, Statutes and Court Rules, Regulations, Administrative Decisions and Guidance. Regulations in highlighted in yellow and has a red arrow pointing to it.

Scroll down to the field By Topic and select Environmental Law to browse Federal and State regulations.  

A picture of where to locate the By Topics section on the next screen. The title By Topic has a red arrow pointing at it. Below that are listed the topics Admiralty and Maritime, Antitrust, Bankruptcy, Commercial Law, Construction Law, Corporations, Criminal Law, Environmental Law, Estate Planning. Environmental Law is highlighted in yellow and has a red arrow pointing at it.

You may also search News

A picture of the Browse part of Westlaw Campus Research's homepage. The All Content tab is selected as that is the default. On the far right, there is one word. It is News. It is highlighted in yellow and has a red arrow pointing at it.

Choose Energy & Environment in the News by Topic field.

A picture of the section of the next screen labeled News by Topic. A red arrow is pointing to News by Topic. There are three columns of words. The first words of the second column are highlighted in yellow. The highlighted words are Energy and Environmental

Search by keyword or phrase

A picture of the top part of the Westlaw Energy and Environment news search area. There is a search box along the top with "water pollutant" highlighted in yellow in the search box including the quotation marks. They help to group the words together so they are more likely to be searched for together. Under the search box is the label of the page in large letters Energy & Environment News.

© 2023, Purdue Global, a public, nonprofit institution.

Privacy Policy

|

End User Agreement