Department of Earth Sciences

Literature databases are search engines for scientific publications. They help you to find the information you need for your dissertation or research.

Here is a list of databases that are particularly relevant for geology students.

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)
One of the largest databases for scientific publications. The coverage is somewhat less broad than Google Scholar, but the search refinement options and data quality are significantly better. Around 60% of the indexed documents are available in open access.

Google Scholar
Popular scientific search engine with a simple user interface and very broad coverage. Caution: limited search refinement options and poorly maintained data (e.g. duplicates, irrelevant and non-scientific documents, incorrect metadata, etc.).

Web of Science Core Collection
Large scientific literature database with well-maintained data and diverse search functions. The search results can be very precise, i.e. contain few irrelevant publications. However, books and conference papers are often not indexed and the general coverage is less comprehensive than BASE or Google Scholar. Very good tool for Citation Tracking. Very good indexing - use the clickable keywords under a relevant publication to find more relevant literature!

>> We also recommend publisher databases such as Wiley Online Library (Wiley), Springer Link (Springer) or Science Direct (Elsevier). However, these literature databases are limited to the publications of the respective publisher!

GEO-LEO
Database for geographical and geoscientific publications (books, journals, specialised articles, maps, websites, etc.). In addition to the literature database, the website also contains GEO-LEOe-docs, the publication server of the Specialised Information Service for Geosciences (FID GEO).

GreenFILE
Interdisciplinary database focussing on the environment. Contains both scientific and non-scientific publications.

Geological Surveys Database

The Geological Surveys Database project is a collaborative effort between the American Geosciences Institute and U.S. state geological surveys to help increase the discoverability and use of geological survey publications.

BGR-Produktcenter

The BGR Product Centre offers data for which the BGR holds the distribution rights, i.e. which the BGR has produced or played a major role in creating and compiling. This mainly concerns geoscientific data from Germany at a scale of 1:200,000 and smaller as well as maps in the overall European context. Much of this map data is also available for free use as a Web Map Service (WMS).

OLC Geowissenschaften

The database contains tables of contents of journals from the special subject collections: Geology, Mineralogy, Petrology, Soil Science, Geophysics, Geography and Mining. Currently 684 journal titles are being analysed retrospectively up to the year of publication 1993. The database currently contains over 1.62 million articles and reviews from the fields of geosciences, geography and mining (as of July 2023). Orders via online interlibrary loan or the document delivery service subito are possible!

>> More databases (in German)

>> Database Information System (DBIS) of the Freie Universität Berlin