BIOL 398: Ecology of Urban Environments

Geobase: Literature in physical and human geography, geology, mineralogy, ecology and development studies. On the Engineering Village platform, make sure Compendex and Inspec are not checked off.

Web of Science Core Collection: a multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the sciences, including computer science and engineering and social sciences.

Environment Complete: Offers extensive coverage in the areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, and affiliated areas of study.

Sofia: Contains a mix of books, articles, journals, media, but you can filter to show only books or ebooks. The default is to display items available at Concordia Library, but you can expand the search to show books from other Quebec university libraries that you can then request. 

Canada Commons: Database of Canadian publications. Includes content from both scholarly and independent publishers, and public policy papers from think tanks and government.

Government Information Search: Customized Google search that searches across Canadian federal, provincial and municiple documents and websites. Guide also includes links to other sources of Canadian and international government information.

Advanced Google: Advanced search options and fields available in Google. If you prefer to use Google Scholar, you can set it up to display the Find it @ Concordia Library Links.

Evidence: Can you verify the information?

Look for the presence of a resource list or linked pages and the quality of the references. Do any other resources confirm the information presented? Can you verify the information in other sources?

Source: Who made this? Can you trust them?

Find “About Us” section to see who is creating this content. Google authors, publishers, partners or sponsors, what can you find out about them?

Context: Is this the whole story? What’s the bigger picture?

Given your own knowledge of the topic, has something been left out?

Audience: Who is the intended audience?

Look at the "About Us", Mission Statements and/or Product pages, this can tell you who they are targeting with their content. 

Purpose: Why was this made?

Look for the "About Us" section or see if you can find a mission statement. You can also google the publisher or creator, what can you find out about them?

Execution: How is this information presented?

Look at the overall structure, style and design. This can speak to how well funded an organization is or how much time has been spent compiling resources.

The above checklist was adapted from NewseumED Escape Junk News Poster.