Library Guides: Spatial Science: Recommended resources

Dictionaries and encyclopaedias

The Routledge Handbook of Geospatial Technologies and Society by Alexander J. Kent (Editor); Doug Specht (Editor)
Publication Date: 2023
Introduction to geographic information systems by Chang, K.
Publication Date: 2018
Handbook of research on geospatial science and technologies by Maphanyane, J. G. et al. (Eds.)
Publication Date: 2017
The SAGE handbook of spatial analysis by Fotheringham, A. S. & Rogerson, P. A. (Eds.)
Publication Date: 2009
Encyclopedia of GIS by Shekhar, S. & Xiong, H. (Eds.)
Publication Date: 2007

Quick links

Other useful guides

Ebook Collections

ProQuest eBook Central This link opens in a new window
A huge and constantly growing multidisciplinary collection of eBooks. This collection is the Library’s largest collection of eBooks, and covers many of the subjects taught at Charles Sturt.
There are sometimes restrictions on the use of these eBooks. With high-demand items where there is a limit on concurrent users, we recommend that you find and download what you need and then close off the book/browser window to free up the licence for someone else. For a demonstration of how to do this, please see the Library’s short eBooks etiquette video. There are usually limitations on how much you can download and copy, but these should reset after 24 hours.

Some books are available for full download. If you wish to download a ProQuest eBook Central eBook to your computer, you need the free software Adobe Digital Editions. To download to a device, you need a free app: Bluefire Reader or Aldiko Book Reader (for android only).

For help with using this collection, see the ProQuest Ebook Central page in the Library’s eBooks guide. It includes a link to ProQuest’s own guide on the collection, and has embedded videos from ProQuest on the online reader and on downloads.

See more tips on finding and using eBooks.

Library databases

ProQuest
ProQuest is a provider of a huge range of databases covering all subject areas, and including a range of sources. Most of these databases include full-text material, but some, particularly in the environmental sciences area, are databases of abstracts only.

Subject strengths include biological science, earth & environmental sciences, general science, business, education, health & medicine, and social sciences.

Sources include mainly journals, but there are two specialised database of interest:
* ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global - an important database of dissertations and theses from America and Europe;
* ANZ Newsstream - a database of Australian and New Zealand newspaper articles.

The link here takes you to searching across ALL the ProQuest databases. Once in the ProQuest platform, you can pick and choose from the menu of databases by clicking on the Change Databases tab in the top menu.
ScienceDirect
An Elsevier database of scientific content from journals and books, which gives comprehensive coverage of the sciences and social sciences.

Material is organised in the major subject areas ("domains") of:
• physical sciences and engineering
• life sciences
• health sciences
• social sciences and humanities.

Charles Sturt Library does not subscribe to all of the content in ScienceDirect, but the subscription does include the full-text of thousands of journals and hundreds of eBooks. Both the journal and eBook content cover a range of subjects.

To browse the collection, go to Journals & Books at the top of the main page. You can filter your browsing by journal or book title, domain and subdomain (subject areas), resource type (articles and book chapters), and access type.

You can search using basic or advanced search. Search results are available as journal articles and book chapters.

You can filter results to full-text content by ticking the box(es) for Subscribed publications and/or Open Access articles. You can also filter by article type or to book chapters.

For journal article results where the full-text is NOT available, click on the article title to go to the full record, then click on the Find It button to search for the full item via Primo Search.

Most full-text journal content is available from 1995 onward and, for some journals, the content is available from Volume 1. New titles are added regularly.

Elsevier also produces the Scopus database, a huge abstract and citation database, and the eBook collections ClinicalKey Student: Nursing and ClinicalKey Student: Medicine.
Scopus
A multi-subject abstract and citation database of research literature. Known for its citation-tracking and bibliometric features.

Scopus is an abstract and citation database of research literature which offers coverage of more than 22,000 journals, and more than 150,000 books, from more than 5,000 publishers. There are nearly 70 million records and 1.4 billion cited references. Most records date since 1996 but Scopus has recently added records dated from 1970 - 1995.

Scopus does not in itself include the full-text of articles, but many records in a results list will have a View at publisher link. If that link doesn't work, use the Find it link to search for the full article via Primo Search.

Subject coverage includes:
* Life Sciences
* Health Sciences
* Physical Sciences
* Social Sciences & Humanities.

Scopus has a number of specialised features relating to bibliometrics which are mainly used by higher degree researchers. But one feature that might have wider application is the ability to use the View Cited By function to find articles that cite your selected articles(s). You can also sort your results list by citation count.

A note on access for academic/research staff: If you are academic/research staff and require access to your Charles Sturt researcher profile, please use this link - https://www.scopus.com - and sign in using the "Access through your Institution" option. Type Charles Sturt University into the search box and follow the prompts.
SpringerLink
A database of journals and eBooks published by Springer, with much available in full-text. The journals tend to be from the scientific, medical, and scientific disciplines, while the eBooks cover biomedical & life sciences; computer science; earth & environmental science; humanities, social sciences & law; and medicine.

Charles Sturt Library does not subscribe to all the items in this collection.

You can tell which results are available to you in full-text because those that are NOT available are marked with a padlock icon.

You can't limit a search to journal or book material, or to full-text content only, at the time the search is run. But you can refine your results by Content Type and/or by unticking the box for Include Preview-Only content. There are other refining options for Discipline, Subdiscipline, and Language.
Web of Science
A collection of 6 databases available in the Thomson Reuters interface, the most significant of which are: Web of Science Core Collection; Current Contents Connect; MEDLINE; and SciELO Citation Index. These databases can be searched together or individually.

Details of the 6 databases are:
* Web of Science Core Collection - a collection of 5 citation indexes and 2 chemical indexes, where you can, amongst other things, find citing articles (i.e. articles that have cited a specific reference);
* Current Contents Connect - a current awareness product which includes tables of contents and citations from journals from all disciplines;
* KCI-Korean Journal Database - features research emanating from South Korea, and covers about 2,000 scholarly journals;
* MEDLINE - the well-known international health and medicine database, produced by the (US) National Library of Medicine;
* Russian Science Citation Index - covers Russian research in fields such as engineering, materials science, and ecology, with more than 600 journals indexed;
* SciELO Citation Index (Scientific Electronic Library Online) - a program of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation for the cooperative publishing of open access journals, which includes regional journals from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as titles from Spain, Portugal and South Africa.

These databases can be searched together ("All Databases", which is the default) or individually. To change to a single database, click on the drop-down arrow beside All Databases in the main tab-bar of the Web of Science screen.

Most of the articles in this databases don't have the full-text attached, but you can use the Find it button, situated beneath each record, to locate the full-text in another online database or in a campus library print holding.

See all Science, Environmental Science and Outdoor Recreation, or IT, Computing & Mathematics databases.

Need some help with understanding how to use Library databases? See our Database Help Guide.

Maps and datasets

AURIN
Direct access to high-quality, spatially enabled, national-scale data assets covering economics, population, health, housing, transport, climate impacts, social policy, critical infrastructure, planning and land use.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
The AIHW is an independent statutory Australian Government agency producing authoritative and accessible data and statistics to benefit Australian people.
Bureau of Meteorology - data services
The Bureau of Meteorology provides a vast range of environmental data to the public, business and public sector clients.
Data.gov
The central source of Australian open government data. Many of the data sets can be visualised using the in-built mapping tools. Datasets that contain a geospatial field (such as latitude and longitude) can be mapped and viewed.
Data.NSW
Access live Transport timetables, detailed information about NSW Health statistics, environmental data and thousands of other datasets.
National Map
NationalMap is an online map-based tool to allow easy access to spatial data from Australian government agencies.
The Central Resource for Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data in NSW (SEED)
Developed for the NSW community in a collaborative effort between government agencies to provide an accessible and reliable platform for environmental data.
Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (TERN)
Delivers data and tools to researchers who are working to understand Australia’s environment and so enable its management for sustainable social and economic benefit.
DataVic
The place to discover and access Victorian Government open data.
LandScan
LandScan provides the highest resolution global population distribution data, using GIS and remote sensing to offer an average 24-hour population at approximately 1 km resolution.

Websites

Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is a collaborative, digital, open infrastructure that pulls together Australian biodiversity data from multiple sources, making it accessible and reusable.
Geoscience Australia
Australia's pre-eminent public sector geoscience organisation and trusted advisor on the geology and geography of Australia. Geoscience Australia apply science and technology to describe and understand the Earth.
ANZLIC Foundation Spatial Data Framework
The FSDF LINK is the digital realisation of the Foundation Spatial Data Framework. It exposes the supply chains of datasets from the state and territory jurisdictions to the national datasets and the products created from those national datasets.
Spatial Data Analysis Network (SPAN)
SPAN is a research support unit within the Research Office, Charles Sturt University.
Spatial Information Exchange (SIX NSW)
The SIX Portal is the official source of New South Wales geospatial information. It also provides access to authoritative land and property information.

Professional organisations

Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG)
Throughout Australia, the AIG is the leading professional institute representing geoscientists in all professional sectors.
Mapping Sciences Institute, Australia
An association of professionals engaged in map-making and/or geospatial science - where the latter is defined as “the study of the spatial aspects of terrestrial and geographic datasets.”
Geospatial Council of Australia
The Geospatial Council of Australia is the peak body representing the interests of organisations and individuals, including new and emerging professionals working in the vast range of occupations for surveying, space and spatial in the digital world.