Historical Research in the Atmospheric Sciences : Journal Articles
AOSS Librarian
About Journal Articles
Academic journal articles may be more specific in their focus. This means both that you may be able to find some articles more directly about your topic, and that you might need to extrapolate more from others to see how they relate to your research.
Other useful types of journal articles might be overviews or literature reviews. A literature review will delve into the depth of prior research on a topic, and can be instrumental in helping you understand the history of an idea.
Databases to Search
One of the best places to find journal articles is in databases. Some databases are publicly available, like Google Scholar, while others require a subscription. The UW-Madison Libraries have an incredible number of databases that we subscribe to for you to use in your research.
Some suggested places to start are listed below, but it's important to remember not to get too attached to any one database. Each one operates differently and pulls from a different pool of underlying articles, so it's good practice to try lots of search strategies in lots of places to broaden your results. If you aren't getting what you need from one database, try a different one!
UW-Madison Introductory databases
These are good databases to start with for a general understanding of a topic. However, if your research is very specific or technical in nature, these databases might not be specialized to contain literature about your topic. In these cases, you might want to look at more subject-specific databases.
UW-Madison Subject databases
These are databases selected by specialized librarians for particular subjects of research. There is a list of atmospheric science databases that is a great place to start, but you are encouraged to consider other subject database categories too, as atmospheric sciences is a very multi-disciplinary field. In particular, the environmental science, geology, history, engineering, and astronomy database lists might be relevant, depending on your research.
Specific databases recommended for this research
This is a non-exhaustive list of databases that are likely to be particularly useful in researching historical atmospheric science topics.
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Environmental Issues OnlineCollection of multimedia materials (primary sources, films, text and photographs) supports the study of key environmental challenges and events from the 20th and 21st centuries.
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History of Science, Technology & MedicineContains journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, and medicine and allied historical fields.
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International Climatic Changes and Global WarmingArchival collection of studies, reports, and analyses of the U.S. response to the threat posed by climatic change and global warming, covering facts, causes, and economic and political implications.
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Meteorological & Geoastrophysical AbstractsJournal articles, conference proceedings, books, and technical reports in the fields of meteorology, climatology, physical oceanography, hydrology, glaciology, and atmospheric chemistry and physics.
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Oceanic AbstractsArticle database covers marine biology and physical oceanography, fisheries, aquaculture, meteorology and geology, and environmental, technological, and legislative issues and policy.
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Web of ScienceCollection of databases indexing scholarly literature in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, from journals, conference proceedings, symposia, and more. Includes citation network data.
