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- GEOS 4700 Earth History
- 1. Background research
GEOS 4700 Earth History
This guide supports students writing a term paper in GEOS 4700.
What is background research?
Diving straight into reading journal articles can be daunting and inefficient, especially if you are new to a topic. Background sources like encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks are intended to help you explore topics, learn the basics, and give you a direction to pursue in your article searches.
Sources for background research
- Open web searches
- Books (use Library Search)
- Specialized encyclopedias (see below)
Caution!
While background resources are a great place to find important sources to include in your bibliography, do not cite encyclopedias, dictionaries, or handbooks in your writing unless your instructor OK's it. Find articles, reports, or other books to cite instead.
Specialized encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia of Geology byPublication Date: 2021Provides a comprehensive and accessible one-stop shop for information on the subject of geology, explaining methodologies and technical jargon used in the field.
- Earth As an Evolving Planetary System byPublication Date: 2021Earth as an Evolving Planetary System, Fourth Edition discusses key topics dealing with the evolution and interaction through time of Earth's crust, mantle, core, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.
- Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology byPublication Date: 2016Broad topics include the history of evolutionary biology, population genetics, quantitative genetics; speciation, life history evolution, evolution of sex and mating systems, evolutionary biogeography, evolutionary developmental biology, molecular and genome evolution, coevolution, phylogenetic methods, microbial evolution, diversification of plants and fungi, diversification of animals, and applied evolution.
- Encyclopedia of Geochemistry A Comprehensive Reference Source on the Chemistry of the Earth byPublication Date: 2020This reference covers geochemical thermodynamics and kinetics, isotope and organic geochemistry, meteorites and cosmochemistry, the carbon cycle and climate, trace elements, geochemistry of high and low temperature processes, and ore deposition.
- Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods byPublication Date: 2020Provides a synthesis of (1) the physical and chemical bases of dating methods, and (2) the applications of dating methods to the geological sciences, biology, and archaeology.
- Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers byPublication Date: 2011This encyclopedia mainly focuses on the various aspects of snow, ice and glaciers, but also covers other cryospheric branches, and provides basic concepts and bibliography on relevant topics.
