LibGuides: Environmental and Geographical Science Library Guide: Journals & Articles

Journal Search

Search for a journal title of your interest or its ISSN number

Journals at UCT Libraries

At UCT Libraries we have journals in both print and electronic format. To find journals, use Journal Search in Primo.

Print journal collection are physically housed in three different areas.

Current journals are in low shelves at Research Wing, Jagger Level 6.
Older journals published after the year 1965 are housed in the basement in compact shelves, at Immelmann Level 2 and Level 1.
Journals published in 1965 and before 1965, they are stored in a remote location. To access one of the journal volumes, please request at the counter or issuing desk. Note that there will be a waiting time of 24hrs. However, if you would like to access just a single article, please send a request to your librarian.

Electronic journals are available in subscribed databases and all are searchable via Journal Search in Primo. Remember to search for the journal title, and not the article title. Online access coverage information of a subscribed journal is reflected in Primo record of it and its articles.

How to Identify Predatory Publishers

How to evaluate requests for journal article submissions
What to consider when choosing where to publish
How to judge the quality of a journal for unethical publishing practices

Find the full article from 'How to Identify Predatory Publishers' page at UCT Libraries website.

DHET Accredited Journal's List

2025 DHET Accredited Journals List

2024 DHET Accredited Journals List

Journals included in the UCT's Read & Publish Transformative Agreement with Publisher's

This agreement allows UCT researchers to publish Open Access articles on a selected journals without paying Article Processing Charges. There are conditions to benefit from this agreement and that includes:

the corresponding author who submits the manuscript needs to be current staff member of UCT or registered student when the publication got accepted
when you submit the application, use your UCT email

2025 List of journals included in the UCT Read & Publish Agreement with Publishers (Excel spreadsheet)

The spreadsheet have worksheets dedicated to each publisher.
The all combined worksheet have all included journals listed.
Please note the colour codes in the spreadsheet.

A journal entry or row that is not highlighted by colour, is 100% free of Article Processing Charges (APCs).
If highlighted with yellow, the agreement just allowed a discount. This means you would still have to pay the rest.
If highlighted with red, then the journal do not covered by the agreement.

If the journal that you are considering to publish in is not covered by the Read & Publish agreement and you still want to publish open access, UCT have a Research Publication Grant on a first come first serve basis. You can apply to this fund after you publication is accepted and this is managed by UCT Research Support Hub (Research Office).

What is a journal?

A journal is like an academic magazine where researchers have written articles about their research findings.

What is the difference between a book and a journal article?

A book is a longer, and a usually more comprehensive text on a subject.

Journal articles are shorter, and more focused on specific topic. They are published more frequently and so have more up-to-date information than books do.

Why use journals?

They are usually more up to date than books.
As most of them have been checked by other peer researchers (i.e. peer reviewed), they are more reliable than general web articles and newspaper articles.
They are shorter to read than books.

Some Databases for Environmental and Geographical Sciences

Environmental Science Index

Major areas of coverage include: Human Population Dynamics; Population - Environment Relations; Population Statistics and Policy; Ecotourism; Sustainable Living and Consumption; Environmental Awareness and Education; Environmental Law, Conventions, & Policy; Sustainable Resource Base: Atmosphere; Land; Water and Biodiversity; Economic Drivers; Sustainable Development and Production; Sustainable Energy; Sustainable Transportation/Mobility.
ScienceDirect

This e-journal package covers physical science and engineering as well as life sciences, health sciences, social sciences and humanities.
Web of Science

Multidisciplinary coverage of over 28,000 high-impact journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.

Explore the world’s leading citation database with multidisciplinary coverage of over 28,000 high-impact journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Powerful tools include cited reference searching, Citation Maps, and the Analyze Tool.

Africa Development Indicators
ADI is the premier data source on the African economy. It contains 1400+ indicators & time series from 1965 for 53 countries. Data include social, economic, financial, natural resources, infrastructure, governance, partnership, & environmental indicators. It brings an essay on a key topic--the long term growth challenges of the continent.
Agricultural & Environmental Science Database
This database includes the renowned AGRICOLA, TOXLINE, ESPM (Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management) and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) databases and provides full-text titles from around the world, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, and government publications. This database includes specialized, editorially-curated A&I resources covering such topics as the effects of pollution on people and animals and environmental action and policy responses.
AJOL - African Journals Online
Online access to the tables of contents and abstracts of articles from up to 70 journals in agricultural sciences, science and technology, health and social sciences, published in Africa.
Biological & Agricultural Index Plus
Biological & Agricultural Index Plus™ provides full text of articles from over 100 journals dating back to 1997, as well as indexing and abstracts of more than 380 publications. Subject coverage includes agriculture & agricultural research, atmospheric science, biochemistry, biology, biotechnology, botany, chemistry, environmental science, geology, marine biology microbiology, physics and much more.
Ei Compendex (Engineering Index)
This vast comprehensive engineering database covers journal articles, technical reports, conference proceedings and papers published worldwide. Subjects include: mechanical, civil, environmental, electrical, and structural engineering, materials science, solid state and superconductivity, bioengineering, energy engineering, chemical and process engineering, optics, air & water pollution, solid waste management, hazardous waste management, road transportation and transportation safety.
Environment Abstracts
This is a broad and comprehensive environmental research resource which provides indexing and abstracts of journal articles from both scholarly journals and popular general interest magazines, monographs, conference papers, research reports, and annual reports containing vital information on all aspects of the impact of humans and their technology on the environment.
Environmental Engineering Abstracts

This database covers technological and engineering aspects of air and water quality, environmental safety, and energy production.
Environmental Science Index
Current and comprehensive indexing; Covers comprehensive scholarly output, managed by an expert editorial team overseeing content selection and indexing supported by a controlled vocabulary.
GeoRef
An earth sciences database that covers natural resources, pollution, the environment, geochemistry and geomorphology.

An earth sciences database that covers natural resources, pollution, the environment, geochemistry and geomorphology.
GreenFile
GreenFILE provides information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records.
International African Bibliography Online
The International African Bibliography Online (IABO) lists details of more than 4,000 publications each year, with articles from some 1,150 periodicals. The IABO concentrates on publications dealing with the African Continent as a whole, classified according to subjects such as agriculture, and nutrition, anthropology, art, economics and development, education, history and archaeology, languages, law, literature, politics, religion and philosophy, science and social sciences. Titles are also arranged by region, including individual countries, and the African Diaspora is included as a category of its own. Articles and monographs are presented separately in the IABO.
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
IIED is one of the world’s most influential international development and environment policy research organisations. Most publications are free to download and we offer printed publications at no cost to individuals and organisations in non-OECD countries.
MINTEK

This useful resource indexes and abstracts original research carried out at Mintek and recorded in the form of journal articles, reports, patents, conference papers, and special publications.

Subjects covered include: economic geology, mineralogy, minerals engineering, extraction technology, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, biotechnology, process chemistry, environmental management, and physical metallurgy.
Scopus
"Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources with smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. It's designed to find the information scientists need. Quick, easy and comprehensive, Scopus provides superior support of the literature research process."
U.K. Parliamentary Papers
U.K. Parliamentary Papers (previously The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers) are vital to the historical record of Britain, its former Colonies and the wider world. They are among the richest and most detailed primary sources for the history of the past two centuries, and are fundamental to an understanding of current legislation, policy making and the political environment.