EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

SCHOLARLY RESEARCH RESOURCES

Research Resources for Emergency Management Faculty and Students

This guide was prepared on behalf of the FEMA Higher Education Program by Jessica Jensen

from North Dakota State University, Department of Emergency Management.

Feel free to contact her for additional advice about how to find literature on a particular topic if

use of the guide does not result in the collection of sufficient literature. Also, feel free to contact

her with feedback regarding the usefulness of this guide and how it can be improved in future

versions. She can be reached at ja.jensen@ndsu.edu.

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Preface

In the past few years a concerted effort has been made by the higher education community to

purposefully pursue the development of an academic discipline of emergency management. This

effort has been supported by the Federal Emergency Management Program (FEMA) Higher

Education Program which has convened a number of focus groups to discuss, debate, and

suggest to the wider higher education community what it might do to further develop emergency

management as an academic discipline.

One product of these focus groups has been the suggestion of a disciplinary purview for

emergency management. These groups have suggested that the academic discipline of

emergency management is the scientific study of how humans interact and cope with hazards,

vulnerabilities, and resulting events and consequences. And, further, that members of the

discipline—through a combination of research based-education and conducting research—seek

to inform the practice of emergency management professionals as well as how individuals and

households, nonprofits, businesses, and government participate in tasks and activities related to

emergency management.

When emergency management’s purview is conceived of this way, it is apparent that there is a

vast and deep body of knowledge upon which it can draw. The groups have argued that this body

of knowledge can, and should, inform both education and research in emergency management.

As noted in the report of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Higher Education

Program Focus Group on the Disciplinary Purview of Emergency Management,

The discipline of EM has a responsibility to collect, analyze, integrate, and synthesize the

literature related to hazards, vulnerabilities, and resulting events. No academic discipline

currently perceives this task as their responsibility or domain; no academic discipline

bases its education of students on such an approach exclusively; and, the research of all

other disciplines on the topics of hazards, vulnerabilities, and resulting events remains

incomplete without a foundation on integration and synthesis. EM has a unique

opportunity to contribute by basing both the education we offer and the research we

conduct on the integration and synthesis of the hazards and disaster literature…the EM

academic discipline, like any other, has a responsibility to conduct both basic and applied

research [and] its foundation will rest upon the literature related to our topics that has

been generated by scholars from a host of disciplines (Jensen, 2012, p. 3).

The ability of individuals associated with the emerging discipline to meet these responsibilities

rests on knowing where the literature is and accessing it. Two issues hindering evidence-based

education within emergency management programs and the amount and quality of emergency

management research have been noted by a recent focus group. Specifically,

 The body of knowledge related to EM is vast. Contributors to the body of knowledge come from dozens of academic disciplines and disseminate their work in hundreds of

journals, books, edited volumes and monographs, etcetera. Tens of thousands of pieces of

literature related to hazards and disasters await collection, analysis, integration, and

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synthesis. These pieces lay waiting to be read by students and educators in EM. Yet,

finding the body of knowledge is difficult, to say the least. Challenges such as a lack of

knowledge about hazards and disaster specific journals, the diversity of other outlets

where EM relevant work is published, search engines that do not recognize common EM

keywords, and a lack of familiarity with how to locate the literature leave both students

and faculty frustrated. (Jensen, 2012, p. 8-9)

 Most academic disciplines rely on a combination of large databases (e.g., EBSCO, Project Muse, ProQuest, Sage, Web of Science, and the like) and disciplinary specific

databases to provide significant citations/articles in response to queries. As previously

mentioned, the large databases do not respond well to common EM keywords and there

are no discipline specific databases to support the development of the EM discipline.

Development of such a database would require significant financial, technical, and

logistical support. (Jensen, 2012, 9).

To address these issues, the group recommended that a methods training course, research

methods textbook, and research database be developed. Yet, these activities have not yet been

undertaken and are likely to be undertaken, or available, for some time. The guide that follows is

an intermediate step to help address research issues in emergency management higher education.

It is intended to further support the development of emergency management as an academic

discipline particularly with respect to meeting the responsibilities the emerging discipline has

assigned itself. The development of the guide has been sponsored by the FEMA Higher

Education Program and is evidence of its continuing commitment to support the higher education

community’s efforts to develop emergency management as an academic discipline and in so

doing better serve students, further develop the profession, and bring about change in how

society interacts and copes with hazards, vulnerabilities, and resulting events and consequences.

Documents reporting the discussion of the focus groups referred to above are available at:

https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/emTheoryResearch.asp.

Table of Contents

Preface……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. i Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2 Primary Sources ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly Journals ………………………………………………………………………………… 3 Primary Emergency Management Journals ………………………………………………………………….. 3

Other Journals ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Books …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Secondary Sources ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10 Theses and Dissertations …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10

Research Centers ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 Think Tanks………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13

Government Reports ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14 Tertiary Sources ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16

Popular Press and Media Reports…………………………………………………………………………………. 16

Professional Magazines ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16 Government Documents ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 16

Appendix A. Sub-field Resources: Homeland Security ……………………………………………………… 18

Appendix B. Sub-field Resources: Business Continuity …………………………………………………….. 19 Appendix C. Sub-field Resources: Humanitarian Assistance………………………………………………. 20

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Introduction

This research resource guide begins to demystify the landscape of emergency management

literature for students and faculty alike. The guide’s organization is derived from the 2013 Draft

Research Standards Research Standards for the Academic Discipline of Emergency Management

(available at https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/emTheoryResearch.asp). The Standards

suggest that the most desirable source of literature for research in emergency management are

those pieces that report the findings of empirical research in peer-reviewed journals and books

and that other sources, while often important in the research process, ought to be considered

secondary or tertiary. Thus, the guide organizes the literature in three categories: primary,

secondary, and tertiary, outlines various sources in each category, and discussed how those

sources might be accessed. Because many students and faculty associated with emergency

management programs may be interested in exploring topics related to the sub-fields of

homeland security, business continuity, and humanitarian assistance, some resources related to

these sub-fields are provided in three appendixes to this guide.

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Primary Sources

The 2013 Draft Research Standards identify primary sources of emergency management research

as “the findings of original, empirical research that have been published in scholarly, peer-

reviewed journal articles, peer-reviewed books, and/or book chapters in peer-reviewed books”

(p. 2). This section outlines some resources of these types that may be useful as well as how one

might go about accessing these resources.

Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly Journals There are myriad peer-reviewed, scholarly journals publishing the findings of empirical research

related to how humans interact and cope with hazards, vulnerabilities, and resulting events and

consequences. It is useful to categorize the existing journals as one of the following:

 Emergency management journals—The aims and scope of journals of this type is closely aligned with the disciplinary purview of emergency management; or,

 Other journals—The aims and scope of journals in this category is aligned with one or more disciplines other than emergency management but the journal nevertheless

publishes articles related to emergency management’s purview from time-to-time.

This section provides a short description of how to access each of these categories of peer-

reviewed, scholarly journals.

Primary Emergency Management Journals A list of peer-reviewed, scholarly emergency management journals is provided below organized

by access type (i.e., open access, subscription required). The list includes a hyperlink to the

journal’s website, the url to the website, the journal’s years of availability, and common

databases where the journal is indexed and/or abstracted.

It is a good idea to begin research on an emergency management topic with first searching these

journals since a) they primarily publish the findings of research on emergency management

AND b) they are more likely to respond to common emergency management keywords.

Open access journals

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science

Url: http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/natural+hazards/journal/13753

Availability: 2010—

Indexed/abstracted: DOAJ, OCLC, Summon by Serial Solutions

International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters

Url: http://ijmed.org/issues/

Availability: 1983— (Note: Access to the most recent two years requires a subscription.)

Indexed/abstracted: NA

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Jamba: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies

Url: http://www.jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba

Availability: 2006—

Indexed/abstracted: NA

Journal of Disaster Research

Url: http://www.fujipress.jp/JDR/

Availability: 2006—

Indexed/abstracted: Scopus, Compendex (Ei), Scirus, Ulrichsweb™ Global Serials Directory,

Genamics JournalSeek, and Open J-Gate

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Url: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jhsem.2013.10.issue-2/issue-files/jhsem.2013.10.issue-

2.xml

Availability: 2004—

Indexed/abstracted: EBSCO (multiple), Elsevier – SCOPUS, J-Gate, Microsoft Academic

Search, ProQuest (multiple), Thomson Reuters (multiple), and WorldCat (OCLC)

Journal of Natural Disaster Science

Url: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jnds

Availability: 2006—

Indexed/abstracted: J-Stage

Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

Url: http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/volumes_and_issues.html

Availability: 2001—

Indexed/abstracted: NA

Revista Internacional de Desastres Naturales, Accidentes e Infrastructura Civil

Url: http://academic.uprm.edu/laccei/index.php/RIDNAIC/issue/archive

Availability: 2001—

Indexed/abstracted: NA

Subscription only journals

Asian Journal of Environment and Disaster Management

Url: http://rpsonline.com.sg/journals/101-ajedm/ajedm.html

Available: 2009—

Indexed/abstracted: NA

Disasters

Url: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-7717

Available: 1977—

Indexed/abstracted: CABI (multiple), EBSCO (multiple), Elsevier (multiple), GeoRef (AGI),

International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA), NLM (multiple), ProQuest (multiple), Thomson

Reuters (multiple)

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Disaster Prevention and Management

Url: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0965-3562

Available: 1992—

Indexed/abstracted: EBSCO, Geographical Abstracts: Human Geography, Health & Safety

Science Abstracts, Risk Abstracts, Scopus, Taylor & Francis Ergonomics Abstracts, Current

Contents ® / Social and Behavioral Sciences, Journal Citation Reports / Social Sciences Edition,

Social Sciences Citation Index ® & Social Scisearch ®

Environmental Hazards

Url: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tenh20

Availability: 1999—

Indexed/abstracted: Elsevier Science Direct

Environmental Management

Url: http://link.springer.com/journal/267

Availability: 1977—

Indexed/abstracted: Springer Link and ProQuest ABI/INFORM

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment

Url: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1759-5908

Availability: 2010—

Indexed/abstracted: EBSCO, ProQuest, Scopus

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Url: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction/

Availability: 2012—

Indexed/abstracted: Elsevier Science Direct

International Journal of Emergency Management

Url: http://www.inderscience.com/jhome.php?jcode=ijem

Availability: 2001—

Indexed/abstracted: Scopus, Compendex, Academic One File (Gale), EBSCO Business Source

Premier

Journal of Crisis and Contingencies Management

Url: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1468-5973

Availability: 1993—

Indexed/abstracted: EBSCO (multiple), GEOBASE (Elsevier), ProQuest (multiple),

PsycINFO/Psychological Abstracts (APA), SCOPUS (Elsevier), Thomson Reuters (multiple),

Web of Science

Journal of Emergency Management

Url: http://www.pnpco.com/pn06008.html

Availability: 2003—

Indexed/abstracted: PubMed, Medline

Natural Hazards

Url: http://link.springer.com/journal/11069

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Availability: 1988—

Indexed/abstracted: Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch), Journal Citation

Reports/Science Edition, SCOPUS, EBSCO, CSA, ProQuest, Gale, Geobase, GeoRef, OCLC

Natural Hazards Review

Url: http://ascelibrary.org/journal/nhrefo

Availability: 2000—

Indexed/abstracted: NA

Risk Analysis

Url: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924/issues?year=2009

Availability: 1981—

Indexed/abstracted: CABI (multiple), EBSCO (multiple), Elsevier(multiple), OCLC, GEOBASE

(Elsevier), GeoRef (AGI), PROQUEST (multiple), PsycINFO/Psychological Abstracts (APA),

Social Science Research Abstracts, Thomson Reuters (multiple)

Risk, Hazards, & Crisis in Public Policy

Url: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1944-4079/issues

Availability: 2010—

Indexed/abstracted: OCLC-WorldCat

Risk Management

Url: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/rm/archive/index.html

Availability: 1999—

Indexed/abstracted: CSA (multiple), Current Contents, Ex Libris / Primo Central, Gale, OCLC,

Infotrieve, SCOPUS, Social Sciences Citation Index, Thomson Reuters

Three discontinued journals that published valuable emergency management research include

Australasian Journal of Disaster & Trauma Studies (1997-2012), Disaster Management and

Response (2003-2007) and Mass Emergencies (1975-1979). All of the volumes and issues of

each journal are openly accessible online.

Other Journals There are countless other scholarly peer-reviewed journals that publish articles related to

emergency management. Unfortunately, many of the journals are discipline specific, do not

publish relevant articles as a matter of course, or simply dedicate a special issue to the subject

now and again. As a result, it is advisable to locate additional articles related to your topic by

querying databases instead of searching through these journals one-by-one.

Most higher education institutions subscribe to a number of large general databases and

disciplinary specific databases that can generate significant citations/articles in response to

queries. Large databases that are commonly subscribed to include ABI/INFORM Complete

(ProQuest), Academic Search Premier (EBSCO), Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA),

JSTOR, ProQuest Databases, ScienceDirect (Elsevier), and Web of Science (Thomson

Reuters). These databases are easily searched by keyword/topic. Most databases allow those

querying to limit the returns to scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles—it is wise to ensure

that your search is limited in this way from the outset.

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Searching these databases might result in the kinds of information you seek right away. Yet, the

large databases tend not to respond well to common EM keywords and there are no discipline

specific databases to support the development of the EM discipline. If you experience frustration

with the relevance and/or number of the returns your searches yield when exploring one of these

databases, it may be helpful to broaden the keyword/topics you are using. Keywords that often

yield significant numbers of returns include: hazard, disaster, risk, as well as specific hazards

such as tornado, hurricane, earthquake, blizzard, etc. After generating a large list of returns, you

can search within them using other keywords more closely related to your topic.

A useful way to expand your collection of relevant literature is to explore the references at the

end of articles you find highly relevant to your topic. Once you find a reference that looks

interesting or helpful, you can search for it at your library. As you find more articles, you can

continue searching the references in this way until you have collected sufficient literature.

Books There are thousands of books related to disaster that might be useful to the emergency

management researcher. Propositional inventories or codification books, edited books with

chapters by different authors on a range of emergency management topics, case study books, and

books exploring specific disciplinary interests in disaster are just a few categories of books that

one might want to track down.

A book that one would label a propositional inventory or codification book attempts to 1)

identify and synthesize research findings on a specific topic or a wide range of topics and/or 2)

report hypotheses supported by the research or that the literature implies that ought to be tested

through future research. There are a number of books of these types. They can be an invaluable

resource when initiating a literature search because they may potentially link you to a significant

body of literature related to your topic of interest, relay the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in

the existing literature, and suggest needs for future research. The following list of propositional

inventory/codification books is not comprehensive but may be good references when beginning

your literature search.

 Auf der Heide, E.(1989). Disaster response: Principles of preparation and coordination. St. Louis, MO: The C.V. Mosby Company.

 Barton, A. (1969). Communities in disaster: A sociological analysis of collective stress situations. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.

 Drabek, T. (1986). Human system responses to disaster: An inventory of sociological findings. New York: Springer Verlag.

 Dynes, R. (1970). Organized behavior in disasters. Heath Lexington Books.

 Mileti, D. Drabek, T., & Haas, J. (1975). Human systems in extreme environments: A sociological perspective. Monograph #21. Boulder, CO: Institute of Behavioral Science,

The University of Colorado.

 National Research Council. (2006). Facing hazards and disasters: Understanding human

dimensions. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

 Tierney, K., Lindell, M., & Perry, R. (2001). Facing the unexpected: Disaster

preparedness and response in the United States. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.

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Edited volumes with chapters on different emergency management topics by different authors

abound. Some of the chapters in these books are meant to review the literature on a given topic,

and this type of chapter could be a great asset to a researcher. Unfortunately, it is difficult to

know which books or chapters will be useful without hearing about them from others. Thus,

below are listed a number of key edited volumes related to emergency management that may be

useful, but is not comprehensive. Check your library catalog for these books. If your library does

not have them, you can order them through Interlibrary Loan.

 Bankoff, G., Grerks, G., & Hilhorst, D. (eds). (2007). Mapping vulnerability: Disasters,

development and people. Sterling, VA: Earthscan.

 Barenstein, J., & Leemann, E. (ed). (2013). Post-disaster reconstruction and change:

Communities’ perspectives. New York: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group.

 Burby, R. (ed). (1998). Cooperating with nature: Confronting natural hazards with land-

use planning for sustainable communities. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.

 Comfort, L. (ed).(1988). Managing disaster: Strategies and policy perspective. Durham:

Duke University Press.

 Drabek, T., & Hoetmer, G. (eds) (1991). Emergency management: Principles and

practice for local government. Washington, DC: International City Management

Association.

 Farazmand, A. (2001). Handbook of crisis and emergency management. New York:

Marcel Dekker, Inc.

 Hoffman, S., & Oliver-Smith, A. (eds) (2002). Catastrophe and culture: The

anthropology of disaster. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.

 Miller, D., & Rivera, J. (2011). Comparative emergency management: Examining global

and regional responses to disasters. New York: Taylor and Francis, The Routledge

Group.

 Platt, R.(ed) (1999). Disasters and democracy: The politics of extreme natural events.

Washington, DC: Island Press.

 Rodriguez, H., Quarantelli, E., & Dynes, R. (2007). Handbook of disaster research. New

York: Springer Verlag.

 Quarantelli, E. (ed) (1977). Disasters: Theory and research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage

Publications.

 Shaw, R., & Krishnamurthy, R. (eds) Disaster management: Global challenges and local

solutions. New York: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group.

 Singh, R. (ed.) (2006). Natural hazards and disaster management: Vulnerability and

mitigation. New Dehli: Rawat Publications.

 Waugh, W., & Tierney, K. (2007). Emergency management: Principles and practice for

local government. Second edition. Washington, DC: International City Management

Association.

 Wisner, B., Gaillard, JC, & Kelman, I. (2012). The Routledge handbook of hazards and

disaster risk reduction. New York: Taylor and Francis, The Routledge Group.

Books exploring specific disciplinary interests in disaster can provide a very detailed perspective

on specific disaster topics. To locate these books, it is easiest to start in a library. To search your

library catalog, use similar keywords as you would when searching journals—start with words

like hazard, disaster, flood, tornado, earthquake, etcetera. Once you find one book that seems

relevant, you may be on the verge of finding more!

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Books in libraries are typically arranged by subject in the Library of Congress Classification or

Dewey Decimal System. As a result, books about the same or similar subjects can be found in

sections beginning with the same letters and numbers. For instance, in libraries using the Library

of Congress Classification all of the books about philosophy, psychology, and religion would be

in the “Bs,” all of the books about geography and anthropology would be in the “Gs,” and

technology and engineering books would be in the “Ts”. Thus, if someone found a book related

to disaster psychology they would likely find more by continuing to look around on the

surrounding shelves in the “Bs”.

Case study books can be easily located by searching a library catalog or online using the name of

the hazard and/or a specific event as a key word. In addition to libraries, online booksellers can

be a resource for searching for case study books. When you identify a book of interest, check to

see if your library has it, and, if not, you can order it through Interlibrary Loan.

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Secondary Sources

The 2013 Draft Research Standards identify secondary sources of emergency management

research as “completed and institutionally approved theses and dissertations, conference papers and proceedings, preliminary working papers from research centers, final grant project reports from think

tanks and/or research centers, and government reports such as those from the Congressional Research

Service or Governmental Accountability Office. This contextual material can be valuable in

generating possible hypotheses, providing a rationale for topic ideas, or use as illustrations/examples

but in and of themselves do not constitute what the discipline would normally recognize as a

sufficient foundation for research. These sources are best used as contextual material…for a study

rather than as a foundation for the researcher’s approach to the study” (p. 2-3). This section outlines

some of the sources of these materials and how to access them.

Theses and Dissertations Theses and dissertations based on empirical research are an excellent source of literature

regarding emergency management phenomena. The research studies reported in these

publications often explore timely topics.

Some emergency management programs require empirical master’s theses and/or dissertations,

including North Dakota State University and University of North Texas. Other emergency

management programs require conceptual theses including the Naval Post Graduate School.

Additionally, students from a variety of academic disciplines choose to conduct their thesis or

dissertation research on emergency management phenomena. All variations of this type of

literature can be valuable in the research process.

You can search for theses and dissertations relevant to a particular emergency management topic

by searching the database, World Cat Dissertations and Theses (OCLC). Many institutional

libraries subscribe to this database. It is best to search this database through your library if

applicable because the theses and dissertations found there are often available for download. If

they are not available electronically, they can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan services.

Should an institutional library not subscribe to this database, it can be searched online at

http://www.worldcat.org/ by entering a topic of interest in the search bar, filtering the returns to

those in the thesis/dissertation format, and requesting those of interest through Interlibrary Loan.

Research Centers Research centers associated with colleges and universities are an additional source of emergency

management literature. These centers often provide downloadable preliminary working papers

and final grant project reports as well as the titles of and links to scholarly publications that have

resulted from the working papers/grant reports.

Three centers may be particularly useful to the emergency management researcher because of the

long history of contributions to the literature by individuals affiliated with the centers and

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because they provide access to most, if not all, of the work their center has supported

orproduced.

The Disaster Research Center at University of Delaware, for example, allows open access to the

E.L. Quarantelli Resource Collection in its Institutional Repository

(http://www.udel.edu/DRC/E.L.%20Quarantelli%20Resource%20Collection/D-space.html). The

Natural Hazards Center at University of Colorado Boulder (http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/),

provides access to a range of materials including reports from Center supported Quick Response

Research, bibliographies Center staff/faculty have prepared, and research reports/monographs

Center faculty/staff have developed, among other materials. And, Texas A&M University’s

Hazards Reduction and Recovery Center (http://hrrc.arch.tamu.edu/publications/) offers access

to a variety of publications produced by the Center including monographs, research reports, and

presentations.

Other centers that might be a source of emergency management literature include the following:

Eastern Carolina University Center for Natural Hazards Research

www.ecu.edu/hazards/

Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center

www.stormrisk.org

Florida International University International Hurricane Center

www.ihc.fiu.edu/

George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

www.gwu.edu/~icdrm/

Louisiana State University Hurricane Center

www.hurricane.lsu.edu/

Millersville University of Pennsylvania Center for Disaster Research and Education

http://muweb.millersville.edu/~CDRE/

The National Academies Disasters Roundtable

http://dels.nas.edu/dr

North Dakota State University , Center for Disaster Studies and Emergency Management

www.ndsu.edu/emgt/center_for_disaster_studies_and_emergency_management /

Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC)

www.scec.org

Stanford University, John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center

www.blume.stanford.edu

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State University of New York at Buffalo, Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering

Research

www.mceer.buffalo.edu

Texas State University, James and Marilyn Lovell Center for Environmental Geography and

Hazards Research

www.geo.txstate.edu/lovell

Tulane University Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer

http://payson.tulane.edu/

University of Arizona Office of Arid Lands Studies and Arid Lands Information Center

www.arid.arizona.edu

University of Arkansas, Arkansas Center for Earthquake Education and Technology Transfer

http://quake.ualr.edu

University of California, Berkeley, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center and

National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering

http://peer.berkeley.edu/

University of California, Los Angeles

Center for Public Health and Disasters

www.ph.ucla.edu/cphdr/

University of Colorado at Boulder Natural Hazards Center

www.colorado.edu/hazards

University of Delaware Disaster Research Center

www.udel.edu/DRC/

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Mid-America Earthquake Center

http://mae.ce.uiuc.edu/

University of Louisville Center for Hazards Research and Policy Development

Home

University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information

www.ceri.memphis.edu/

University Of Nebraska – Lincoln, National Drought Mitigation Center

http://drought.unl.edu

University of New Orleans Center for Hazards Assessment Response and Technology

http://chart.uno.edu/

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University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Center for Urban and Regional Studies

www.unc.edu/depts/curs

University Of Oregon, Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience

http://oregonshowcase.org/

University Of Pennsylvania Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center

http://grace.wharton.upenn.edu/risk

University of South Carolina Hazards Research Laboratory

www.cla.sc.edu/GEOG/hrl/

University of South Dakota Disaster Mental Health Institute

www.usd.edu/dmhi/

University of South Florida Center for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance

www.cdmha.org

University of Virginia Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems

www.virginia.edu/~risk

University of Wisconsin Disaster Management Center

http://dmc.engr.wisc.edu/

Think Tanks Think tanks are another potential source of emergency management literature. In particular, the

Brookings Institute and the RAND Corporation are engaged in a significant amount of work

related to emergency management and may be useful places to begin.

Brookings Institute http://www.brookings.edu/about#research-programs/

According to its website, “the Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization

based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and,

based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations that advance three

broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security

and opportunity of all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative

international system. “

A simple search of Brookings Institute’s website using the search term “emergency

management” returns more than 7, 300 resources that may be useful in emergency management

research. These resources reflect the wide variety of research topics the Brookings Institute

explores, and may be found in book, report, paper, article, and opinion/commentary form. These

resources are publicly available for review and/or download.

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RAND Corporation http://www.rand.org/topics/terrorism-and-homeland-security.html

“The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking

through research and analysis” according to its website. One of RAND’s core research areas is

terrorism and homeland security. The more than 1, 500 terrorism and homeland security related

journal articles, research briefs, and reports housed on the RAND website can be viewed and/or

downloaded from their website.

Government Reports The final kind of secondary resources identified in the Draft Standards are government reports.

Two types of government reports—Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports and

Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports—might be useful to the emergency

management researcher because they are produced on a regular basis and often concern

emergency management topics.

It is important to note here that government reports are different from government documents

(referred to within this guide as tertiary sources and discussed in the section to follow).

Government reports explore—to varying levels of depth and detail—the history or performance

of emergency management organizations (e.g., the Federal Emergency Management Agency),

various aspects of emergency management practice, or emergency management laws,

regulations, policy. Government documents include actual laws, regulations, policies and other

documents that articulate emergency management practices and, often, provide

recommendations as to how those practices ought to be implemented.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) See links below.

According to the CRS website, “The Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively

for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members

of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. As a legislative branch agency

within the Library of Congress, CRS has been a valued and respected resource on Capitol Hill

for nearly a century. CRS is well-known for analysis that is authoritative, confidential, objective

and nonpartisan. Its highest priority is to ensure that Congress has 24/7 access to the nation’s

best thinking.”

Over time, Congress has requested a significant amount of analysis related to emergency

management policy and law that may be helpful to someone conducting emergency management

research.

CRS provides its analysis to Congressional committees and members in the form of long reports,

short reports, appropriations reports, issue briefs, briefing books, and research memos. These

documents are not disseminated publically or formally housed in a database by CRS. However,

CRS documents are often made available through the committees and members that request

them. These documents have been collected and stored in such a way that they can be viewed

and/or downloaded at a variety of sites on the internet. The following is a short list of sites that

store CRS documents:

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Federation of American Scientists CRS Archive

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/index.html

Open CRS

https://opencrs.com/

Thurgood Marshall Law Library

http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crssubject.html?subjectchoice=Terrorism

University of North Texas Digital Library CRS Report Collection

http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/

U.S. Department of State

http://fpc.state.gov/c20419.htm

Government Accountability Office (GAO) http://www.gao.gov/browse/topic/Homeland_Security

The GAO is “an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the

‘congressional watchdog,’ GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer

dollars” according to its website. The organization’s mission is “to support the Congress in

meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the

accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. We provide

Congress with timely information that is objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, fair,

and balanced.”

Over the years, the GAO has prepared countless reports to Congress regarding emergency

management topics that may be helpful to the emergency management researcher. Of particular

interest to emergency management researchers are the more than 1,300 documents categorized as

“Homeland Security” reports. Common subject headings within “Homeland Security” that may

be of interest include “emergency preparedness,” “interagency relations,” “performance

measures,” “program evaluation,” “program management,” “risk assessment,” “risk

management,” and “strategic planning.” The GAO website also has an advanced search function

that allows researchers to search GAO reports and testimonies by the keyword of their choice.

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Tertiary Sources

The 2013 Draft Research Standards identify tertiary sources of emergency management research

as “material from the popular press, media reports, professional magazines, white papers, anecdotal/opinion pieces, government documents (e.g., legislation, policy documents), and personal

communications with subject matter experts. Material from these sources can be sensitizing and add

dimension to a literature review but in and of themselves do not constitute what the discipline would

normally recognize as a sufficient foundation for research. Online encyclopedias are not an

acceptable source” (p. 3). There are myriad tertiary sources and many more ways of accessing them.

A list of these resources and access options would be unwieldy and difficult to use. Thus, this section

describes some common databases of media reports, key professional magazines, and key ways of

accessing government documents.

Popular Press and Media Reports There are a variety of databases to which higher education institutions typically subscribe that

are worth searching if you are interested in media reports related to your research. Specifically,

Lexis-Nexis, Factiva, and ProQuest are common databases that store news articles. These

databases typically provide electronic access to the media reports they house. If your institution

does not subscribe to any news databases, then Google News may be helpful. Once you have

searched “News,” you can click on the “search tools” button and use a number of functions

including sorting the returns by relevance or date and limiting the returns by the time period of

publication. The media reports returned through Google News may or may not be freely

available. If they are not freely available, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan.

Professional Magazines There are many professional magazines related to emergency management. Each may

occasionally publish articles related to your topic of interest. Examples of professional

magazines that may publish relevant articles include 9-1-1 Magazine, Fire Chief Magazine, EMS

World Magazine, American Police Beat Magazine, among many others.

There are also some emergency management professional magazines, which are more likely to

publish articles relevant to your topic of interest. Emergency Management Magazine

(http://www.emergencymgmt.com/), Disaster Recovery Journal

(http://www.henrystewartpublications.com/jbcep), and Journal of Business Continuity and

Emergency Planning (http://www.henrystewartpublications.com/jbcep) are three potentially

helpful resources.

Government Documents A wide variety of government documents may be useful to an emergency management

researcher; and, fortunately, government documents are both available and free to access. The

FEMA Resource and Document Library, THOMAS, and the Government Printing Office are

three “user friendly” sites that are a good place to start the search for government documents

related to emergency management.

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FEMA Resource and Document Library http://www.fema.gov/library/index.jsp

According to the Resource and Document Library website, “The FEMA Library is a searchable

web-based collection of all publicly accessible FEMA information resources, including, but not

limited to: CDs, DVDs, publications, brochures, guidance and policy papers, program

regulations and guidelines, forms, disability resources, audio and video files, posters, slide

presentations. It allows users to locate, download, save, or print items from the web.” Examples

of specific documents that one can find in the Resource and Document Library that might be

helpful to researchers include the national planning frameworks, various planning guides, and

policy documents (e.g., Guidance for Planning for Integration of Functional Needs Support

Services in General Population Shelters).

THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov/

According to its website, the Library of Congress launched the THOMAS database in January of

1995 to make federal legislative information freely available to the public. This information

includes treaties, house and senate schedules and calendars, committee reports, public laws by

number, bill sponsors, texts, summaries, and status, house and senate role call votes, lists of

house and senate floor activity for each day. And, according to the site, “the full text of the

Congressional Record can be searched by word/phrase, member of Congress and/or date or date

range” over multiple Congresses.

U.S. Government Printing Office, Federal Digital System http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

According to the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) website, “…GPO is the Federal

Government’s primary centralized resource for producing, procuring, cataloging, indexing,

authenticating, disseminating, and preserving the official information products of the U.S.

Government in digital and tangible forms. The agency is responsible for the production and

distribution of information products for all three branches of the Federal Government, including

U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of Congress, the

White House and other Federal agencies, and the courts. Along with sales of publications in

digital and tangible formats to the public, GPO supports openness and transparency in

Government by providing permanent public access to Federal Government information at no

charge through its Federal Digital System (www.fdsys.gov) and through partnerships with

approximately 1,200 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library

Program.” Specific resources accessible through the GPO include the Code of Federal

Regulations, compilation of presidential documents, congressional bills, congressional

documents, congressional hearings, congressional record, congressional reports, Constitution of

the United States of America: analysis and interpretation, economic indicators, Federal Register,

public and private laws, United States Code, and United States courts opinions.

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Appendix A. Sub-field Resources: Homeland Security

Journals Related to Homeland Security Homeland Security Affairs (open access)

Journal of Homeland Security (open access)

Journal of Homeland Security Education (open access)

Homeland Security Related Research Centers Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute

Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project (BNLWRP)

Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS)

Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Center for Immigration Studies

Center for Infrastructure Expertise

Crossing U.S. Borders

Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection

Institute for Intergovernmental Research

Institute For Non-Lethal Defense Technologies (INDLT)

Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College

International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research

JUSTNET: Justice Technology Information Network: National Law Enforcement and

Corrections Technology Center

Migration Information Source

Migration Policy Institute

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)

National Institute of Justice

Pew Hispanic Center

RAND Homeland Security and Defense Center

Small Arms Survey

Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College

Websites with Other Homeland Security Resources National Homeland Security Knowledgebase

Homeland Security Digital Library

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Appendix B. Sub-field Resources: Business Continuity

Journals Related to Business Continuity The Journal of Business Continuity and Resiliency

International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management

Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures

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Appendix C. Sub-field Resources: Humanitarian Assistance

Journals Related to International Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Crises African Journal on Conflict Resolution (open access)

African Security Review

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution (open access)

Columbia Human Rights Law Review

Conflict and Health (open access)

Conflict Management and Peace Science

Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution Quarterly

Conflict, Security & Development

Conflict Trends

Conflict, Security & Development: CSD

Cooperation and Conflict

Food Security

Forced Migration Review (open access)

Global Change, Peace & Security

Global Public Health

Habitat International

Harvard Human Rights Journal

Human Rights Quarterly

International Journal of Conflict and Violence (open access)

International Journal of Human Rights (open access)

Journal of Conflict and Security Law

Journal of Conflict Studies (open access)

Journal of Development Studies

Journal of Humanitarian Assistance

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Journal of Humanitarian Medicine (open access)

Journal of International Development

Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies

Journal of Law and Conflict Resolution (open access)

Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict

Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace (open access)

Journal of Human Security

Media, War & Conflict

Medicine, Conflict and Survival

Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

Peace and Conflict Studies (open access)

Peace, conflict and development (open access)

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Refugee Survey Quarterly

Security and Human Rights

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

Sur – International Journal on Human Rights (open access)

Third World Planning Review

Tropical Medicine and International Health

News and Research Sources Related to International Humanitarian Issues and Events Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System

IRIN–Humanitarian News and Analysis

Prevention Web

Relief Web