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Urban Studies

Recommended resources for getting started with research in Urban Studies

USING DATABASES

As an interdisciplinary field, urban studies research may require sources and materials indexed by various multidisciplinary or subject-specific databases.

The databases on this page are suggested starting points for locating scholarly peer-reviewed articles, along with other types of informational resources:

URBAN STUDIES DATABASES

Urban Studies Abstracts
Covers essential areas related to urban studies, including urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
International coverage of scholarly and popular periodicals in architecture, architectural sculpture, city planning, and landscape architecture.

SAGE Discipline Hub - Geography, Urban Studies & Planning
SAGE collection of core disciplinary journals and books in geography, urban studies and planning.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY DATABASES

Google Scholar
Links to peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations
JSTOR
Provides full text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, architecture and art history and other fields. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each title, but usually ends several years before the current year.
Project MUSE
Covers literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, etc. Contains current full text scholarly journals which cover these fields and a significant collection of recent scholarly books.
Scopus

Index of articles from scholarly journals spanning the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Provides cited reference searching capability.
Web of Science

Index of articles from scholarly journals spanning the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Provides cited reference searching capability.

The Web of Science “Core Collection” includes the following:
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI)
Book Citation Index - Science (BCKI-S)
Book Citation Index - Social Sciences & Humanities (BCKI-SSH)
Current Chemical Reactions (CCR-EXPANDED)
Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
Index Chemicus (IC)
Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)

SOCIAL SCIENCE & DISCIPLINE SPECIFIC DATABASES

GreenFILE
Index of articles from journals, government publications, and general interest titles relevant to human impact on the environment including global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and recycling.
HeinOnline
Legal history, government documents, and law-related periodicals. Includes access to New York State package (State Constitutions, Session Laws, State Statutes, State Reports, Attorney General Opinions, Prestatehood Legal Materials for all 50 states, and Political and Legal History).
ProQuest Social Science Collection
Combined search of 15 ProQuest products: Alt-PressWatch, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, Black Study Center, Coronavirus Research Database, Econlit, ERIC, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, Healthcare Administration Database, LGBT Magazine Archive, PAIS, PTSDpubs, Sociological Abstracts, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Social Services Abstracts
Abstracts of current research on social work, human services, and related areas.

Last Updated: Aug 26, 2025 5:28 PM
URL: https://library.vassar.edu/urbanstudies
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Subjects: Urban Studies

Tags: cities, towns, urbanism, urbanization