LibGuides: Urban Studies & Planning: Articles

Finding Background Information

New to your topic? Don't know where to start?

A helpful first step is to get a broad overview of your topic by searching an encyclopedia.

The following are urban studies encyclopedias written by scholars in the field. Reference works like encyclopedias provide a broad overview of a particular topic and can provide ideas for further narrowing a topic and coming up with different search terms.

Encyclopedia of Urban Studies by Ray Hutchinson (Editor)
ISBN: 1849727813
Publication Date: 2010-08-12
Encyclopedia of the City by Roger W. Caves (Editor)
ISBN: 0415252253
Publication Date: 2005-07-12
Urban Planning by Andrew I. Cavin (Editor)
Call Number: HT167 .U7276 2003
ISBN: 0824210220
Publication Date: 2003-08-01
The SAGE Handbook of Housing Studies by David F. Clapham (Editor); William Clark (Editor); Kenneth Gibb (Editor)
ISBN: 9781847874306
Publication Date: 2012-05-14

Wikipedia is another great place to start your research to get a broad over view of a topic. Be aware that since it can be edited by anyone, not just scholars, it may contain erroneous and biased information about a topic.

Pro tip: check out the external references and links at the bottom of Wikipedia articles. These often provide great leads and potential research sources you can cite.

Useful Databases

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,600 journals, including full text for nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles.
GeoRef This link opens in a new window
Published by the American Geosciences Institute, GeoRef contains more than 3.5 million abstracts from journals, books, maps, conference papers, the U.S. Geological Survey and more, providing a comprehensive history of geology and its subfields.
PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
Web-based Geographic Information System covering the United States used to understand communities. With easy-to-use menus, PolicyMap is a GIS tool for non-GIS experts for those who need to visualize large amounts of data quickly and easily, often down to the census tract or block group level.
Data Planet This link opens in a new window
A statistical data repository contains more than 35 billion data points from 70+ source organizations. Census results, business data, health metrics, political science data and more are included in over 4.9 billion datasets presented in charts, maps, graphs, and table form, via multiple points of entry.
TRID (Transport Research International Documentation) This link opens in a new window
TRID is an integrated database that combines the records from TRB's Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre's International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to more than one million records of transportation research worldwide.
Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Legal search engine pulling from proprietary resources such as the West Key Number System, KeyCite, notes of decisions, and added search terms. Westlaw allows users to find cases, statutes, court rules, regulations, briefs, and legal news.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed articles, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and reports across many disciplines and sources.

Core Urban Studies and Planning Journals

Landscape and Urban Planning
Land Use Policy
Urban Studies
Cities
Regional Studies
Habitat International
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Journal of Urban Economics
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
European Planning Studies
Urban Geography
Cambridge Journal Of Regions, Economy And Society
Local Environment
Papers in Regional Science
Housing Studies
Regional Science and Urban Economics
European Urban and Regional Studies
Environment and Urbanization

List generated by Google Scholar Metrics

Configure Google Scholar and Library Resources

Google Scholar offers the ability to link directly to University Library resources. With this feature, you can search Google Scholar to obtain the full text of articles and other electronic materials carried by the University Library. Once configured, Google Scholar will offer a link in the results list "Full Text at CSUN" for items that can be accessed through the CSUN Library. Off-campus access to these items is limited to current CSUN students, faculty, and staff. You only need to set up this configuration once for each computer you use.

To configure Google Scholar and Library resources, start at the Google Scholar homepage. Select the menu icon in the upper left, and Select "Settings."

On the settings page, Select "Library links" in the left menu. Next, enter CSUN in the search box and Select Search. Next, Select CSUN - CSU Northridge - Full Text at CSUN, and Save.

Finally, you can also carry out this same process to configure Google Scholar and "WorldCat." Select the "Open WorldCat - Library Search" box and Save. This will help you locate many items in the Library's collection.