Environmental Concepts and Approaches

Finding scholarly sources for the waste audit assignment (Spring 2024)

With respect to library resources, there are a number of things to note:

1. First, it is recommended that you review waste audits that have been completed elsewhere to get an idea of methods that are used and why they are used.
2. You should also review a periodical, for example, the Canadian Geographer, so you can see how a primary research paper is organized and how detailed their methods are.
3. You are to include background scholarly research on the waste audit process, including books and journal articles.

Recommended steps:

Step 1: go to the Geography Subject Guide page

Step 2: search in one of the databases listed on the page, such as GeoBase, ProQuest, or Web of Science.

In the example below, the example is searching the Geography and Environmental Sciences bundle @ ProQuest.  

Before you search, note:

• I recommend the three databases above because it is easier to limit your results to precise, quality, peer-reviewed articles
• You may choose to use google scholar, but it is hard to determine exactly if results are scholarly, and hard to narrow to precise results
• You may use the Omni search, but I recommend using one of the three databases above for articles, and Omni for books and government documents

Your topic is fairly specific, waste audits. The example below will show you how to find scholarly, peer-reviewed articles on that topic.

You may want to add a secondary topic to narrow the results; for example, looking for waste audits on a university campus.

The presentation below is like Power Point; use the arrow to move forward, or click on individual bars below the slide.

• If you are unfamiliar with Omni, consult our Getting Started with Omni guide, and see links to other specific tutorials, especially Advanced Search, Finding Books, and Finding Articles

Video Tutorials

Below you'll find short video tutorials designed to guide you to find, identify, and analyze a wide range of sources for your research paper.

These videos are curated as a series, Library Research for GES students, that takes you from the beginning of the process and ends with guidance on how to cite your information for your papers.

1. What is scholarship?
2. Finding and identifying academic articles
3. The academic information ecosystem
4. How to cite in APA style
5. Getting citations
6. Credibility of Sources
7. Confusing library terms explained

Tutorial 1: What is scholarship?

• Text (pdf)
• Audio (mp3)

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Tutorial 2: Finding and identifying academic articles

• Text (pdf)
• Audio (mp3)

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Tutorial 3:The academic information ecosystem

• Text (pdf)
• Audio (mp3)

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Tutorial 4: How to cite in APA style

• Text (pdf)
• Audio (mp3)

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Tutorial 5: Getting citations

• Text (pdf)
• Audio (mp3)

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Tutorial 6: Credibility of Sources

• Text (pdf)
• Audio (mp3)

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Tutorial 7: Confusing Library Terms Explained

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