Environmental Design Library @ UC Berkeley

City Planning Indexes & Abstracts

Here is a selective list of indexes and abstracts of articles and other publications on city and regional planning topics. For indexes with an international focus please see International Planning. For newspaper indexes and databases please see News Databases. See also Environmental Planning Indexes & Abstracts. Given the interdisciplinary nature of city and regional planning, there are additional indexes to segments of this field available via the Doe Reference Center (2nd Floor, Doe Library), the Business Library, etc.

Please note that all the electronic indexes listed in this guide are also listed in The Library's directory of article databases. For additional information consult the Environmental Design Library reference staff, 210 Wurster Hall.

UC Berkeley faculty, registered students, and staff who are off campus may use items marked UCB Only by using The Library's off-campus access services.

Compiled by Deborah Sommer. Content reviewed: June 2010

Core Indexes

• Academic search complete via EBSCO - UCB Only Indexes articles in more than 1,500 general interest journals and scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and general sciences. Abstracts and full text available for many titles indexed.
Coverage: 1865--
• Avery index to architectural periodicals via CSA - UCB Only | Video Tutorial Contains citations to articles in 1,000+ periodicals in architecture, planning, urban design, and related disciplines.
Online ed.: 1890--
Print ed.: 1890-1995; EnvDesign fNA8 C64 1973 Index
• Business source complete via EBSCO - UCB Only Includes full text for more than 7,400 scholarly business journals and other sources, as well as country economic reports from the EIU, CountryWatch, etc. Great source for information on community economic development, housing development, redevelopment, and related issues.
Coverage: 1965--
• Geography via Ovid - UCB Only Excellent index. Covers the international literature in physical & human geography, regional community planning, etc., providing access to information from over 2,000 journals, monographs, books, conference proceedings reports, and theses.
Online ed.: 1990--
Print ed., in part: Geographical abstracts. Human geography (EnvDesign HT390 G41 1986-1988 Index;
EART G57 G464 1989-- ) and International Development Abstracts (Main Stack HD82 I38 1982-1997)
• Indexes to the ... journal literature via EBSCO - UCB Only In: International Regional Science Review. Each volume contains subject and author indexes to approximately 66 English-language planning and regional science journals.
Online ed.: 1975-- See the last issue of each volume.
Print ed.: EnvDesign HT390 I56 Periodical stacks
• IngentaConnect - UCB Only Provides full-text access to domestic and international scholarly & academic publications. Excellent starting place, as many city planning journals are included.
  Coverage varies
• Journal of planning literature via CSA - UCB Only Columbus, OH: Sage Publications, Inc. Indexes 400+ journals and provides comprehensive coverage of the city and regional planning literature.
Online ed.: 1985--
Print ed.: 1985/86-- ; EnvDesign NA9000 J687 Index
• Lexis-Nexis academic - UCB Only Includes indexing to over 6,000 journals, newspapers, broadcast transcripts, & wire services. Full text. Offers wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources. Good for public policy and business issues.
Coverage varies
• Planning literature information service (PLIS). In: Planning practice + research. Very broad indexing of approximately 20 major English-language planning journals. Last section in each issue.
Online ed.: 1995--
Print ed.: Mar. 1987-- ; EnvDesign HT165.53 G7 P52
• Sociological abstracts via CSA - UCB Only Indexes journal articles, book chapters, & reviews from over 1,900 journals, books, book chapters, and reviews in the social sciences. Excellent source for public policy topics.
Online ed.: 1963--
Print ed.: 1952-- ; Main HM15.5 S6
• Urban affairs abstracts U.S. and English language emphasis. Covers periodicals, newsletters and journals focusing on municipal government and its administration. Broad range of topics, practical applications. Coverage: 1971-1994.
EnvDesign HT101 U66 Index
• Urban studies & planning - UCB Only Provides indexing to and full text of 12 journals published by SAGE Publications and participating societies, some journals going back 37 years.
Coverage varies
• Web of science - UCB Only Includes the Science Citation Index, which indexes 5,300 major journals across 164 science disciplines (coverage: 1945-- ) and the Social Sciences Citation Index, which indexes 1,700 journals across 50 social science disciplines, as well as individually selected items from over 3,300 leading scientific and technical journals. Also offers cited reference searching.
  Coverage: 1970--

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Complementary Indexes

• Alternative press index and archive via FirstSearch/OCLC - UCB Only Citations are drawn from roughly 380 alternative, radical, and left publications. Useful for identifying community-based and alternative public policy perspectives on housing, land use, the environment, etc., outside of the mainstream. Most journals aren't indexed elsewhere.
Online ed.: Archive (1969-1990), Index (1991-- )
Print ed.: 1969-- ; Doe Stack HM101 A12 A55
• AltPress watch via ProQuest - UCB Only A full-text resource that covers newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press. Good for environmental justice and environmental policy issues. East Bay Express is included starting 6/01.
  Coverage: 1995--
• America: history and life via EBSCO - UCB Only Contains article abstracts and bibliographical citations of reviews and dissertations on the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Excellent index for American cultural history and popular culture.
Online ed.: 1982--
Print ed.: 1954-- ; Main Stack E3 A43
• Art index retrospective & Art full text via WilsonWeb - UCB Only Indexes journal articles in art and related fields, including architecture, art history, city planning, urban design, and landscape architecture.
Online ed.: Art Index Retrospective: 1929-1984; Art Full Text: 1984--
Print ed.: 1929-1994; EnvDesign N18 A72 Index
• EconLit via CSA - UCB Only Indexes economics articles in scholarly journals and in collective works (books consisting of collections of essays or individual papers), dissertations, and books. Includes extensive abstracts.
Coverage: 1969--
• eScholarship: University of California - Open source publishing platform for UC and other scholars that includes the Water Resources Center, the journal Places, many IURD publications and more.
Coverage varies
• Factiva General and business news and information from more than 9,000 sources, including newswires.
  
  Coverage varies
• Geo abstracts. F: regional and community planning.
  
  Coverage: 1972-1985; EnvDesign HT390 G41 Reference
• Global health via EBSCO - UCB Only Indexes over 5,000 journals, books, reports, conference proceedings, theses, and electronic only publications. Topics include environmental and public health, and more.
Coverage: 1973--
• JSTOR - UCB Only A full-text archive of interdisciplinary scholarly journal literature, including sociology; African, African-American, Asian, Latin American, Middle East, and Slavic studies; and political science. Coverage begins with the first issue of each journal; the last few years of publication are frequently unavailable.
Coverage varies
• PAIS international via CSA - UCB Only Topics covered include demographics, education, environment, finance, government, law, legislation, political science, social sciences, and statistics. Good source for public policy topics.
Online ed.: 1972--
Print ed.: 1954-1995; Main & Busi/Econ H106 P7
• PapersFirst via FirstSearch/OCLC - UCB Only Contains 580,000+ citations for papers presented at worldwide conferences, symposia, meetings, expositions, congresses, and workshops received at The British Library. Excellent source for interdisciplinary work; the index covers disciplines in the social sciences, sciences, arts, and the humanities.
Coverage: October 1993--
• Periodicals archive online - UCB Only An online periodical archive that provides full-text access to some 450 digitized journals in the humanities and social sciences. A sister database, Periodicals Index Online, provides additional indexing for articles in over 4,500 periodicals. International scope, including journals in a variety of Western languages.
Coverage: 1770-1995, varies depending on journal title.
• Periodicals index online - UCB Only Indexes over 4,500 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues; includes some full-text access. International scope, including journals in a variety of Western languages. A sister database, Periodicals archive online, provides a full-text archive of some 350 journals.
Coverage: 1665-1995, varies depending on journal title
• PolicyFile - UCB Only Indexes research and publication abstracts addressing the complete range of public policy research. Access to home pages, electronic mail addresses and selected full text are made available within the individual abstracts.
Coverage: 1990--
• PubMed - UCB Only | Users' Guide Full-text access to citations from MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other journals in the field of medicine and life sciences. Topics include environmental and public health, and more.
Coverage: 1950--
• TRID: the TRIS and ITRD database. A newly integrated database that combines the records from the Transportation Research Board'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 over 900,000 records of transportation research worldwide. A comprehensive bibliographic database of transportation research information. Includes some full-text publications. Covers literature from the 1960s to the present, with some coverage of prior years. Highway Research Board publications are covered back to 1923.
http://trid.trb.org/
• Worldwide political science abstracts - UCB Only Some full text. Indexes books, journals, and dissertations within the field of political science and related to political economy, public administration, public policy, etc.
  Coverage: 1975--

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