BI 145 Intro Fish & Wildlife Management : Web resources
Web research for environmental topics
This page provides information about finding credible science research on the web.
If you search the web for "fracking", your results will include pages from industry groups that profit from hydraulic fracturing and from environment advocacy groups that are working to ban the practice. These are both useful information sources to see the different perspectives on the issue. However, while these websites may provide links to research reports and studies, be aware that these were likely "cherry picked" to support particular perspectives.
Good sources for more objective, credible science research on the web are described below: government agencies, university websites, and Google Scholar.
Government Agency Websites
Government agencies such as NASA and the EPA conduct substantial scientific research, much of which is freely available online. You can limit a web search to government sources by adding site:gov to a web search. For example,
Here are some recommended government agencies useful for researching environmental issues.
University websites
Colleges and universities also conduct substantial scientific research, often funded by grants from government agencies.
You can add site:edu to your search to limit your results to education sites. However, .edu sites include all levels of education, so you need to confirm that the information you want to use comes a respected college or university. Here are examples of university websites useful for research on environmental issues.
Find peer reviewed research on the web
Find research articles on the web at scholar.google.com. Not all of the articles will be peer reviewed, but the quality will be much higher than from an ordinary Google search.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowGoogle Scholar searches the web for scholarly articles, reports, books, and other materials. If using Google Scholar from a PCC campus, you can access full text articles. If PCC has access to an article, a "Find it @ PCC" link will appear to the right of the search result. Click “Find it @ PCC” to go to the library catalog where you will be offered a choice to view the article. From home, you will need to set your Google Scholar preferences to access PCC Library resources. See How to Search PCC Library on Google Scholar for directions on how to set your Google Scholar preferences at home.