Subject guides: Planning and Environmental Management: Databases

What is a database?

Databases provide access to high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, dissertations and other sources.

These databases have been especially chosen for this subject area.

When carrying out your research for a piece of work, you will need to search more than one database to find all of the journal articles relevant to your topic, as each database covers different journals.

Key databases

ASSIA
ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts) provides bibliographic information and abstracts on health, social services, psychology, planning, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education from 1987 to present.
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The database contains over 312, 000 records from 650 journals in 16 different countries, with over 1,500 records added annually. The database forms a component of the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts Internet Database Service. The databases included in the Service can be searched individually or in groups.
CITIES (available in Passport)
This is a fully comparable socio-economic database of the world's major metropolitan areas, offering analysis on 850 cities worldwide. It provides localised city economic profiles and analysis on the consumers within, offering valuable insights for strategic planning. Analysis is based on urban economic theory and developed by Euromonitor's extended global network of in-country analysts.
Digimap
The most comprehensive maps and geospatial data available in UK Higher and Further Education. Digimap enables users to view, annotate and print maps from a variety of geospatial data providers;...
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There are three specific Digimap collections:
- Geology Digimap delivers contemporary British Geological Survey (BGS) maps and data at scales of 1:625,000 (solid and drift geology), 1:250,000 (solid and drift geology), 1:50,000 (solid and drift geology, mass movement and artificial ground), and provides the BGS Lexicon of named Rock Units.
- Ordnance Survey Collection delivers current OS maps and data at scales of 1:1,250, 1:2,500, 1:10,000, 1:50,000, and 1:250,000.
- Historic Digimap delivers historic OS maps and data, including County Series maps published between 1843 and 1939, and National Grid maps published from 1945 and before the introduction of the Ordnance Survey's digital Land-Line product.
GeoBase
GeoBase covers all aspects of physical and human geography, geology, ecology and Third World studies. It is a crucial source for most topics in earth sciences and includes valuable coverage of environmental issues and cross-disciplinary topics.
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GEOBASE is a unique multidisciplinary database supplying bibliographic information and abstracts for development studies, the Earth sciences, ecology, geomechanics, human geography, and oceanography. The database provides current coverage of almost 2,000 international journals, including both peer-reviewed titles and trade publications, and provides archival coverage of several thousand additional journal titles and books. GEOBASE contains over 1.4 million records from 1980 to present, with more than 100,000 citations and abstracts added annually
Geology Digimap
This service delivers geological maps and data from the British Geological Survey. Geological maps and data are available at scales of 1:50,000, 1:250,000 and 1:625,000
Historic Digimap
This service provides access to the Landmark historic map collection comprising digital scans of OS paper map sheets including all available County Series Maps at 1:2,500 and 1:10560 scales published between 1843 and 1939, and all available National Grid maps at 1:1,250, 1:2,500 and 1:10560/10,000 scales published from 1945.
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Digimap Historic Map Collection is an EDINA (Edinburgh Data and Information Access) service. A Central username and password is required to access the service. This username must be activated by EDINA before you can use Digimap. To do this, you need to register online on the EDINA web site.
Scopus
Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
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Scopus delivers an overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities. As research becomes increasingly global, interdisciplinary and collaborative, you can make sure that critical research from around the world is not missed.
Urban Studies Abstracts
The database covers subjects related to urban studies including urban affairs, community development and urban history.
Urban Studies and Planning
(Available via the Sage full-text collections). This collection includes the full text of 14 peer-reviewed journals published by Sage and participating societies
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The Sage Full-Text Collections listed below are available. The Collections can be searched or browsed.

Communication Studies
Criminology
Education
Health Sciences
Management and Organization Studies
Materials Science
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology
Urban Studies and Planning
Web of Science
The Web of Knowledge includes Web of Science; Journal Citation Reports; Current Contents Connect; Derwent Innovations Index and many others. This platform provides a unique way of searching, including the ability to perform an 'All Database' search on the content of multiple searchable products.

My Learning Essentials

Getting started with subject databases

This resource explores some of the key features of subject databases, demonstrating that while they can initially appear daunting and complicated, they can be as easy to use as any online shopping site

View all workshops and online resources in this area on the
My Learning Essentials webpages.

Newspaper databases

The library provides comprehensive access to a vast archive of British and overseas newspapers, including electronic access to many current publications. Newspapers are an excellent primary source research tool, not only providing reports about events and issues but also editorials and letters that can be extremely useful for deeper understanding. Access the Newspaper guide for further information.

London Evening Standard Archive

The latest acquisition to our newspaper databases. Users can study the progression of issues over time by browsing issues extending from the newspaper’s first publication in May 1827 to effectively the present day (within 1 week), including articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more. Searching facilitated by user-friendly support and indexing tools, with hit-term highlighting, searchable PDFs, and image downloads in PDF format.