Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology

Articles and Databases
Books
Statistics
Reference
Internet Guides
Evaluating
Citing

Articles and Databases

Core Resources...

CAB Abstracts includes a section on Agricultural Economics.
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management for environmental issues.
Environment and Energy Newswires daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy. Includes Greenwire and Climatewire.
EconLit all areas of economics.
Sociological Abstracts all areas of sociology.
Agricola Articles covers all of agriculture and includes USDA publications.
AgEcon Search a full text library of agricultural and applied economics literature (including working papers).

Of Related Interest...

Web of Science (cited references) search for new articles which cite an older article by using the "cited ref" search mode.
Dissertations & Theses includes dissertations from most U.S. institutions.

Don't forget: Try These First if you want general popular interest magazines and newspapers or pro and con debate information.

Article Search Tips: Finding the best articles on your topic requires a number of steps:

Select a database from the list above.
Enter and combine terms appropriate to your topic.
Look at the best references you retrieve and determine the subject terms used for those articles. Then revise your search using these new terms.
Write down or print off all pertinent information (called the 'citation') including the journal title, volume, date, and page numbers.
Explore other databases and subject terms (which vary between databases) for more information.

Get the full text: Once you find the citation in a database, try the button to see if Penn State has the electronic or print version of the article you need. If the electronic version is available, it will appear as the first link on the Get it! menu. If the article is not available electronically, click on The CAT link to automatically search our catalog and see if Penn State has a print copy. If no other copy is available, you can use the ILLiad link to request it from another library.

Already have a citation? Use Citation Linker to see if Penn State has it online or in print!

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Books

Use The CAT for finding books owned by Penn State.

CAT Search Tips: The CAT is the list of what is owned by Penn State Libraries. Go to the Browse function if you are looking for a specific title or author (type last name first). Go to the Keyword function and combine terms to search on a topic then use the subject headings from relevant books for additional search terms. Write down the call number and location for any book you want. For more detailed searching information go to the Quick Guide to the CAT.

Books Elsewhere: WorldCat

Libraries Borrowing Policies: Once you have the books, check them out at the nearest lending desk or self check-out station. Loan periods are usually four weeks but books can be recalled for another user, so respond promptly to library notices. For more information see the University Libraries Lending Code.

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Statistics

Some basic statistical sources are listed here. Contact a librarian for more detailed assistance if these sources are insufficient.

Agriculture Fact Book (USDA) general facts on agriculture.
Agricultural Statistics (USDA) contains statistics on agricultural production, supplies, consumption, facilities, costs, and returns.
The CRB commodity yearbook This book includes production, supply, exports, imports, price and futures information for agricultural and other commodities.
Census of Agriculture is now taken every five years, and provides statistics by state, county and zip code. Optional access for Older years (courtesy of Cornell University).
National Agricultural Statistics Service provides access to some basic statistics and also links to their full text publications (mounted at Cornell University).
Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service also provides full text versions of their publications, including the annual statistical summary.
The Economic Research Service of the USDA conducts research on trends in the agriculture and food sector. Many of their publications are now available online.
FAOSTAT provides access to international data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe is a powerful index to statistics and data contained in federal agency government publications. The University Library owns most of these collections in paper or microfiche format that do not contain full-text links. ASK for assistance locating information at any University Library Service Desk.
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) archive of computerized social science data.

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Reference

Overviews of topics may be found via the following references:

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Encyclopedia of Earth an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

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Internet Guides

If you are just looking for information in a general topic area, a guide to internet resources is most appropriate than a search engine like Google.

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Evaluating

To evaluate print sources and web sites, you should ask a series of questions concerning the source’s currency, authority, validity, intended audience and bias. See this How to Evaluate Information site for details.

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Citing

When using information from another source you must give credit to the original author or you are plagiarizing. You give credit by citing the source. Make sure your citation contains everything you would need to backtrack and find the information again. It is best to pick one citation style and be consistent. Try this APA Quick Citiation Guide for details and format.

Plagiarism, whether you copy a paragraph from a book or cut and paste someone else's words from an e-mail, is a violation of Penn State's academic integrity policy. See this Statement on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty.

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