Core Scientific/Technical Works
Research on oil shale and technologies covers a range of interdisciplinary areas. Depending on your interests, you may want to focus on energy, extraction technologies, public policy, environment or other areas. The databases below include scientific/technical aspects of oil shale development.
- OnePetro This link opens in a new window
OnePetro is a unique library of technical documents and journal articles serving the oil and gas exploration and production industry. - GeoRef (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes publications on geological and geochemical aspects of oil shale. - OSTI: Office of Scientific and Technical Information This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive access to the results of DOE research and development investments. - Engineering Village This link opens in a new window
Engineering Village is the information discovery platform to search across both Compendex and INSPEC databases. The thesauri on Engineering Village comprise the controlled vocabulary used to index articles in the Compendex, Inspec, GeoRef, GEOBASE and EnCompass databases. - Environment Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Resources on the environment and environmental impacts.
Find Works on Policy, Social Impacts, History
- Applied Science and Technology Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window1983-current. In addition to sci/tech works, includes publications on the social, environmental and economic impacts of oil shale.
- Applied Science & Technology Index Retrospective: 1913-1983 (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowIncludes older works relevant to the development of oil shale as an energy resource.
- Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
Includes newspaper articles on the oil shale industry in Colorado. - Environmental Studies and Policy (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Environmental issues as related to energy development.
Google Scholar Search
Scholarly, Professional, Popular?
Evaluating Sources
What kind of information do you need? If you are writing for a class assignment, you may be required to use peer-reviewed ("refereed") or scholarly sources. In any case, you should always look for sources that are authoritative. For more detailed help with evaluating your sources, see our Evaluating Information Guide.
Scholarly Checklist--Look for:
- Authors listed, with credentials
- Cited references and data, observations, or statistics to support conclusions
- Reviewed by peers or experts in the subject
- Purpose is to inform or impart knowledge, not to sell, persuade, entertain
- Appears impartial--few or no advertisements, no emotional language, unbiased
Authoritative--A source can have authority even if it isn't scholarly.
- Author and/or publisher is an expert on the subject
- Author's affiliations and contact information are available
Other Criteria-- these are not definitive, but worthy of consideration:
- Do you see errors in spelling, grammar, data?
- Is the publication in turn cited by other credible works published later?
- How current is the information (no date? be suspicious)?