Research Guides: East Asian Studies: UA270

History of Science, Technology, and Environment in East Asia, UA 270 or HIST- UA 654 or EAST-UA 569 (Prof. Yijun Wang)

This library guide is for use with course #UA 270 or HIST-UA 654 or EAST-UA 569 and is based on the syllabus, "History of Science, Technology, and Environment in East Asia" provided by Prof. Yijun Wang.

Searching

Search with both keywords and subject headings to find your research materials.
Keyword searches can be used to find items that are associated with your topic. A search for a keyword or keyword phrase will result in items that may contain the keyword in the record, but not necessarily about the topic you want.
If you don't know a standard subject heading that fits what you are looking for, starting with a keyword search can help you locate the relevant subject headings in the record. If you have incomplete title or author information about a specific item, using a keyword can help you find it.
When searching a web search engine like Google, for example, you are using a keyword search and your results will be the records that have that keyword somewhere in it.

Subject Heading searches
Subject headings are used to describe the content or topic of an item in a catalog or database. At NYU, we use Library of Congress (LC) authorized subject headings to describe content. Here are some sample subject headings for this class:

Science -- East Asia -- History
Science -- East Asia -- History -- Congresses
Science -- History -- Periodicals
Technology -- History -- Periodicals
Environmental policy -- United States -- Periodicals
Environmental policy -- Asia
Asia -- Environmental conditions -- History
Asia -- Environmental conditions
Scientists -- China -- History
Science and Civilization in China
Science -- China -- History
Technology -- China -- History
Technology -- Social Aspects -- China -- History
Science -- Japan -- History
Technology -- Japan -- History
Medicine -- Japan -- History
Epidemics -- China
Epidemics -- Asia
Science -- Korea -- History
Technology -- Korea
Environment -- Korea

Library Catalogs

To find out what we have at NYU, search the NYU LIBRARY CATALOG : https://search.library.nyu.edu

To find out what is available elsewhere (and then you can request through Interlibrary Loan or EZBorrow), search these

WorldCat - FirstSearch (OCLC) This link opens in a new window
Search for books and more in libraries in the U.S. and around the world. Indicates when NYU libraries holds a copy of a book and shows you nearby libraries with holdings. Great for searching books in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean scripts and for getting information to request through Interlibrary Loan.
WorldCat.org This link opens in a new window
Free version of WorldCat. Search for books and more in libraries in the U.S. and around the world.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is a central search for scholarly literature. It covers disciplines and sources, peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

History of Science Journals

To search for Journal articles, type the title of the journal in the Library Catalog search box and limit material type to journal. (use Advanced Search screen). You can also use EBSCO Discovery Services (EDS) on the arch: https://guides.nyu.edu/arch and type the information you have - examples: author, title, journal, date.

Isis (Chicago, ILL), online access
History of Science Society. Chicago, Ill. : Published by the University of Chicago Press for the History of Science Society 1913]-

Osiris (Bruges, Belgium), online access
History of Science Society. Bruges, Belgium : Saint Catherine Press 1936-

Technology and Culture.
Society for the History of Technology. Millwood, N.Y. : Kraus Reprint Co. 1959
online access (record) : http://bobcat.library.nyu.edu/permalink/f/ci13eu/NSMARCIT954925448762
Society for the History of Technology. Chicago, Ill. : University of Chicago Press 1959-
print: multiple locations, including Bobst Main Collection (T1 .T4 ), offsite
1-46:2 (1959-2005)
(record) : http://bobcat.library.nyu.edu/permalink/f/ci13eu/nyu_aleph002905289

Environmental History, online access
American Society for Environmental History.Forest HistorySociety. Durham, N.C. : American Society for Environmental History and Forest History Society 1996

History of Science Books

Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China / 中國科學技術史 series
"Joseph Needham directly supervised the publication of seventeen books in the Science and Civilisation series, from the first volume, which appeared in 1954, through to Volume 6, Part III, which was in press at the time of his death in march 1995. The planning and preparation of further volumes continues." Preliminary page, v. 6 pt. 4.
print available in multiple library locations, including Bobst Main DS721 .N39, some on reserve NYU Bobst Reserve Collection

one volume online: through Ebook Central (requires authentication)
Science and Civilisation in China : Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 6, Medicine.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000.
The latest volume in Joseph Needham’s magisterial revelation of China’s premodern and technological traditions introduces medicine. Five essays are included by Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen, edited and expanded upon by the editor, Nathan Sivin. Professor Sivin’s introduction discusses the essays and surveys recent scholarship across the world.

The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China : an abridgement of Joseph Needham’s original text / Colin A. Ronan.
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1978-
NYU Bobst / Main Collection DS721 .N392

Oxford Handbook of Environmental History, online access
Andrew C Isenberg (Andrew Christian), editor.; OxfordUniversity Press
New York, NY : Oxford University Press 2014

The OxfordHandbook of Economics and Human Biology / edited by John Komlos and Inas R. Kelly. , online access
New York, NY : Oxford University Press 2016

Useful Databases for Finding Journal Articles about Asia and the History of Science

Bibliography of Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
The online version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) contains records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide and in Western languages.
China Academic Journals This link opens in a new window
China Academic Journals (Zhongguo xue shu qi kan quan wen shu ju ku,中国学术期刊全文数据库) contains the full text of articles in Chinese (with English abstracts) from Chinese humanities and social science journals in the PRC. Most journal articles are available from 1994, some as early as 1915.
NYU users have access to these series: (E) Medicine and Public Health, (F) Literature/History/Philosophy, (G) Politics/Military Affairs/Law, (H) Education and Social Sciences (J) Economics and Management
Chinese Research Perspectives Online This link opens in a new window
The former Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Yearbooks have become part of the Chinese Research Perspectives series. The focus is on the same six research areas: Economy, Education, Environment, Law, Population and Labor, and Society that were in the yearbooks. The new volumes will no longer be strictly organized on an annual basis. Rather, the selection of contributions will cover developments in China of particular interest to a non-Chinese speaking audience and will occasionally differ from the Chinese-language yearbooks. The volumes will continue to provide Western readers with firsthand insights into the discussions of China’s top scholars on contemporary issues in their country.
EBSCO Discovery Service This link opens in a new window
EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) encompasses articles in databases across many disciplines. Users can locate peer reviewed articles, videos, audio files, images, and more from a range of subjects. Search over 400 of our databases at once!
Historical Abstracts with Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. Indexes more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages. Publication dates of coverage: 1955 to present.
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine This link opens in a new window
International bibliography of the history of science, technology and medicine.Search for journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews and dissertations in all scientific disciplines and related fields. Dates of coverage: 1975 to present.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to journal articles, users can access book chapters, ebooks, and primary source documents.
Medline via PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed comprises over 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of biomedicine and health, covering portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering. PubMed also provides access to additional relevant web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources.
MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
The MLA International Bibliography provides bibliographic records for books, book chapters, journal articles, and dissertations published in the fields of modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Full text is available for some articles. The MLAIB covers items published from around 1920 to the present.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers.

Newspapers

Access World News This link opens in a new window
Access World News provides the html full text articles and transcripts from a variety of national and international news sources, including newspapers, digital-native news websites, television and radio transcripts, blogs, college and university newspapers, journals, magazines, and some audio and video. Most international titles are English language. Dates of coverage vary from title to title, but primarily span the late 20th century to present.
Click Asia, and then use Japan or China or Korea for a keyword to select East Asian newspapers.
Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides insight into Chinese political and social life during the turbulent 120 year period from 1832 to 1953 with 12 English-language Chinese historical newspapers. Included are critical perspectives on the ending of more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China, the Taiping Rebellion, the Opium Wars with Great Britain, the Boxer Rebellion and the events leading up to the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, and the subsequent founding of the Republic of China. In addition to the article content, the full-image newspapers offer searchable access to advertisements, editorials, cartoons, and classified ads that illuminate history.
Japan Chronicle This link opens in a new window
The English-language Japan Chronicle Weekly (1900–1940) is a British-oriented newspaper that covers Japan’s engagement with modernity, war, political and social upheaval and seismic social change in East Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. This collection includes the Kobe Weekly Chronicle (1900-1901) the predecessor of the Japan Chronicle Weekly. It offers a perspective of expatriate communities in Japan and East Asia from 1900-1941.
Japan Times Archives This link opens in a new window
Japan Times Archives provides full-text searching and page images of the English-language newspaper Japan Times from 1897-2022 (Dec.). Japan Times is the oldest English language newspaper in Japan.
*Includes content for The Japan Advertiser. Founded by an American, the Japan Advertiser served as an essential Western perspective during Japan's aggressive advancement into Asia until the title was absorbed into the Japan Times in November 1940. It is a full image/full text searchable digital archive (1913-1940) and is available alongside the Japan Times Digital Archive.*
NK News Pro This link opens in a new window
NK Pro is an information service designed for professionals working on North Korea issues. It contains a range of research tools, databases, media monitoring services and analysis on contemporary issues.
This site aims to be a one-stop-shop on North Korea, bringing together news, opinion & analysis, research tools, data, and subject specialists in one convenient place. Built by North Korea specialists for professionals working on or with the subject, NK Pro brings together North Korea related news and analysis in the world and provides them in real-time from over 100 hand-selected sources daily. Users also have access to a range of regularly updated directories of organizations, companies, experts and practitioners working in this specialist field.
Legitimate emails concerning NK News, NK PRO and KOREA PRO will only be
sent from accounts linked to our official domain – *nknews.org* – or a subdomain like alerts.nknews.org.

Emails from NK News, NK PRO and KOREA PRO will never come from accounts at Gmail.com or domains similar to – but different from – nknews.org.
If you are unsure whether an email is legitimate, please email contact@nknews.org.

Useful Reference Works

Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
Over 250 of these well-known, used and trusted volumes published since the 1960s are available online; covers 14 subject areas, including General History, Regional History, Literary Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.
Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
Dissertations and Theses Global contains indexes, dissertations and some theses. Full-text is available for many dissertations and theses, including those from NYU.
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Oxford Bibliographies presents constantly updated articles that contain citations (with annotations) and commentaries for sources across the disciplines. Users can search topics and gather relevant journal article and book citations, online resources, data sources, and more.
Try searching by Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, public health, science...
Oxford Research Encyclopedias This link opens in a new window
The Oxford Research Encyclopedias (OREs) offer long-form overview articles written, peer-reviewed, and edited by leading scholars. Each of the twenty-five distinct encyclopedias cover both foundational and cutting-edge topics in order to develop, over time, an anchoring knowledge base for major areas of research across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

Citing Sources

How to cite your sources
https://guides.nyu.edu/citations

Organizing your sources and creating bibliographies
https://guides.nyu.edu/citations/tools
Using Refworks, Endnote, Zotero, or Mendeley…
Getting Started with Refworks: https://guides.nyu.edu/refworks

Quick Guide on Citation Style for Chinese, Japanese and Korean Sources (Yale University Library)
https://guides.library.yale.edu/c.php?g=296262&p=1974226

For more assistance with citation management tools, contact librarian Margaret Smith, Physical Sciences Librarian: email ms4108 @nyu.edu

Related Library Guides

Science and Technology Studies (NYU Library)

History of Science Research Guide from Smithsonian National Library